Classified Feelings
by Bml1997
Summary: A young and handsome penguin captures the heart of his female boss, but for various reasons they can't be together. How will they manage living separated, but still together? Written together with silversrider. *Warning: includes character death*
1. The New LG

**A.N.- Hello, everyone. Here is silversrider's and my newest story :D We hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The New LG**

Softly squeezing the flipper of the penguin he loves, Bob Frederic Garrison waddles through the big base. He holds a stack of papers under his flipper and manages to hold on to his brown leathered case with that very same flipper too. Finally, he had gotten the promotion, finally he would be able to live up to his wife's expectations, dreams and wishes. He smiles widely at the younger female penguin waddling next to him. Wasn't he one lucky fellow to have such a great chick, such a good job and such an amazing wife?

But he feels slightly nervous, excited. He knows that this was the day that his life would change forever. With this position, he would be able to earn enough money to give his little Edmond everything he needed and his wife too. He was sure this job would fit him perfectly.

Bob looks sideways at Risette again and sees her glancing a bit irritated at him. Bob gives her another smile and continues to kind of drag her through the base. He then manages to get out a piece of paper from under his flipper with the help of his beak. And he lets go of Risette's flipper for a moment to look at the paper. It told him he had to go see GLC Gray. He glances a bit nervously at the paper. He had heard things about that 'Gray' penguin. He had heard about guys that didn't even lasted a couple of weeks under her regime. He had heard how she used to get really angry at the penguins in her area. He glances nervously around. He could turn back now, but he wouldn't.

He had to get this job. He had to do it for his family. He knew that Risette wanted more money on flipper. Not that he knew what for though... Bob gives another soft smile at Risette before seeing a stern looking female penguin, from around his age waddling rather quickly past them.

* * *

General Lieutenant Commander Grace Kimberly Gray waddles towards her office. She had just come from a meeting with her higher-up, Commander Marian Scott. The meeting had once again been about her 'slight' anger-issues. Grace hadn't meant to hit that newby guard into next week during today's training exercises...It had just sort of happened.

Grace waddles along silently. She gives a couple of small glares at some of the more annoying guards as she does so...And by some, it would have been better thought of as all. They are all either too old or too young for her...Too stupid or too idiotic...None of them is a right guy for her.

She knows that she shouldn't think about the men at work as possible boyfriend selections...But, well...She couldn't really help it. She was lonely. And no matter how many times Marian tells her that this base isn't a 'dating service,' Grace continues to inspect the men working here for her tough male standards.

GLC Gray turns down a hallway towards the office. She stops for a moment when she sees this male penguin out of the blue. He looks strong and tall...Handsome..._Her_ own _age_. She briefly looks him over. She wonders what the smoked halibut a cutie like him is doing in a place like this.

Then she notices the _woman_. Grace mentally snaps unhappily. She highly doubts that that female is just his sister...So, that means that he's already _taken_. Great. The _first_ good-looking guy in here in like _forever_, and he's not up for grabs.

Grace looks them over a little more before continuing to her office. Even though it doesn't really matter all that much anymore, she still wonders who he is and what he's doing at this base.

* * *

Bob looks a little bit more at the stern looking female penguin and then sees her waddling to one of the offices. He softly looks back at the penguin next to him and then lets go of her flipper with a small smile. "Au revoir, ma chérie.*" He says to her and gives her a kiss on her cheek. Risette looks a bit unamused at him before turning around and waddling out of the base. Bob sighs a little at her silence, but then continues in his search for the right office. It wasn't hard to find, he just had to waddle straight to the end of the base and then turn left. He looks at the name plates next to every door until he finds one that read 'GLC Gray'. Bob takes a deep breath, lets a flipper run through his feathers and then knocks three times on the door.

Grace looks up at the door curiously from her pile of paperwork. "Come in." She says as she lays her pencil aside and staples a few sheets together. She figures it's probably Marian here to talk to her more about her temper or maybe something else work-related.

Bob hears the female voice and looks a bit hesitantly at the door. He nervously opens it and waddles into the office and then snaps a salute. "Madame Gray" He says with a nod as he nervously orders the stack of papers under his flipper.

Grace looks at Bob with a raised nonexistent eyebrow. She really hadn't expected the new, cute penguin to be at her door. She clears her throat a little. "Euhm...Name and rank?" She asks curiously as she looks him over some more. He looks even more handsome and cuter from closer up.

"Agent and Medic Bob..." Bob says silently and a bit clumsily. "No... Euhm... That is wrong... Euhm..." Bob looks a bit sheepishly at Grace. "Lieutenant General... Yes, Lieutenant General Bob." He says silently as he thinks that he really should have practiced this. "Madame..." He adds with a nod.

Grace looks at Bob amused at his clumsy talking. She thinks it's cute, too. "Ah, so you're that new LG Commander Marian was talk'n about..." She says with a small nod. 'I definitely approve of having to work near this LG, yup.' She thinks.

Bob nods. "I think so..." He says silently. "If she is the one in charge of this base, then yes." He says somewhat less silent-like. Now that Grace hadn't yet yelled him out of her office, he became slightly more confident about himself being in it. He starts looking around in the stack of papers under his flipper. "I got this lettre*..." He says before clumsily letting all the papers fall from his flipper. He blushes heavily and then quickly starts getting the papers together. "Euhm..." He says really nervously as he looks for the right paper and kneels besides the mess he had made on the floor of Grace's office.

Grace watches him and puts her flipper up to her beak for a moment to keep from laughing. She quickly regains her calm, stern composure and watches him curiously. "Yes, Bob, Commander Marian is the one in charge..." She says. She then kneels down near him and helps with the papers. "Was it this one?" She asks holding up a sheet and showing it to him.

Before looking at the paper, Bob gets together the other papers he had dropped and pushes them a bit roughly and still a bit ashamed in his case. 'I bet she thinks of me now as a total loser... bon début*, Bobby.' He silently thinks and looks at the paper that Grace is holding. He nods after a couple of seconds. "Yes, that one." He says, still blushing heavily as he softly takes it from Grace.

"Okay." Grace says and stands up from off the floor. She dusts herself off before looking at Bob. "Nervous?" She asks him with a small smile.

Bob nods a little. "A little bit, madame." He says a bit silently. "However," he tries to make a new start, "The letter says that you are going to be my new boss..." He says as he looks at Gray.

"It does?" Grace says and looks at him. "Euhm...Can I see?" She asks. She can't remember Marian saying anything earlier about her being the new LG's boss...Not that she would complain now or anything, nope.

Bob nods and hands her the letter. "Right here, madame." He says as he points his flipper to a certain point of the letter. He looks a bit sideways at Grace. He thinks she looks kind of cute now, not at all like that stern monster that the others at his previous base in France had told him about. "Exaggerated." He mumbles really silently as he shakes his head. 'And no looking at different woman, Bobby, you're married with a chick. That's a very bad thing.'

Grace looks at the letter and nods. "Alright...Well, then I guess I had better start show'n you around then, haven't I?" She says with a small smile. She heads towards the door. "Anyone showed you where your office is at yet?" She asks as she opens the door.

Bob shakes his head. "No. The letter only said that I had to go to yours, madame." Bob says as he gets his case and waddles out of the door. He then gets a bit excited, he had never had an office before and it seemed very cool to him to have one. He waits patiently for Grace first though.

"Of course..." Grace says with a nod. She waddles out the door and shuts it behind herself. She then waddles towards another office. "This way, Bob." She says.

Bob nods and follows Grace while looking curiously around. He thinks that this base is not even remotely as bad as the other agents always told him. He himself had never been in this certain base before, seeing how he was a medic too and most of the time either doubled or went with a team. And more often, his missions had arrived per letter, mostly by pigeons. Bob looks around a bit impressed by the amount of guards waddling through this part of the base. "Are we in a high-security zone?" He asks Grace curiously.

Grace chuckles a little. "Bob, this is Base Q. The whole entire thing is high-security." She says. She waddles a little further before opening a door. "And here is your new office." She says with a nod towards it. Grace likes how close to her office it is.

Bob nods and waddles into his office. He looks silently around and thinks that the office looks boring and gray. He puts down the case on the desk that is standing at one side of the office and wonders if he is allowed to hang a painting and bring a couch and closet into it. He looks at Grace. "Madame, am I allowed to hang a painting on the wall?" He asks.

Grace shrugs a little. "Sure. You can do whatever you want about how the office looks...Seeing as how it's _your _office now." She says with a small smile. "You could repaint the walls, too, if you want, just as long as you keep up your work."

Bob nods. "Alright." He says and then looks a bit sideways at Grace, at her large gray eyes and then swallows a little. They seemed so much softer than Risette's fierce and always angry looking gray with a green tinge ones. Bob looks away from his boss to pretend he had been looking around the office instead of observing her face. "All the flipping kippers!" He silently exclaims to get himself out of it. 'Bob!' He yells to himself in his head. 'You know perfectly well that you aren't allowed to look at other women. That's cheating! And Risette would never do such a thing to you, so you are not going to do it to her too.' He thinks before looking back at Grace. "Madame Gray, are you going to show me the rest of the base?" He asks curiously. He thinks that Grace doesn't really behaves all that stern or really like his boss...

Grace looks at him before nodding. "Of course." She says and waddles back out the door. She waits up for him to hurry up and come out, too. Grace glances at the time on her cell phone. She doesn't have much time before her meeting with a scientist about their newest invention. She decides that she should try concentrating on that and her work than on Bob...Especially since he's probably already taken...And is her employee.

* * *

_Translations:_

_*Au revoir, ma chérie : goodbye, my darling_

_*Lettre : Letter_

_*Bon début : good start_


	2. Disastrous Experiment

**A.N.- And here's chapter 2! :D We hope you continue to enjoy :)**

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**Chapter 2: Disastrous Experiment  
**

Bob looks around the base amused as he follows Grace. He sees Grace glancing at her mobile phone and is reminded at how she probably has a tight schedule and how he has just burst into her office. "We could do the tour later, if that fits you better, madame." He says.

"Nah, it's fine." Grace says shaking her head. "This way, Bob." She says with a small motion with her right flipper. She waddles down the office hallway. "To your left there is Commander Marian Scott's office." She says with a small nod towards it. "She isn't to be bothered with anything unless it's really extremely important."

Bob nods. "Of course." He says. "And that is in which cases, madame?" He asks a bit curiously though politely. He looks around the hallway and sees some other penguins waddling through too. They give both him and Grace weird looks and Bob hears them starting to whisper as soon as they pass them. He wonders what is so weird of the new guy being showed around by his boss, but quickly shrugs it off and follows Grace.

Grace thinks for a moment, completely oblivious to the guards giving them weird looks. "Well...If the base is on fire...You're being held hostage by an escaped prisoner...Or unless I tell you otherwise." She says thoughtfully. She continues to waddle forwards. "And that ahead is the physical training room." She motions towards it.

Bob nods. "How does that work? Going to the commander if you're being held hostage?" Bob asks with a small laugh, before turning his attention back to the floor. He had just realized he had made an inappropriate comment. He then looks at the training room. "Does it have a shooting room? For like practicing with the fusil*?" He asks. His favorite way of fighting was fighting with a gun, pistol, riffle or anything else that is able to shoot bullets with a great speed to a target. Bob is a good shooter, better than that he is at fighting. Often he was told to not use his gun, but fight them flipper-to-flipper, but he never really listened.

He remembers quite well that his old boss had told him to aid on a mission with a couple of rookies. The boss had sent him along to keep an eye on them and to be there if one of them were to get injured, which actually was more likely to happen than that any of the rookies thought. Bob gives a silent giggle. The boss had forbidden him to use any of his guns and pistols, because he had to train on his combat skills. But the rookies brought so many problems with them that Bob had to _'accidentally'_ use his gun. It was either the heads of the rookies, or bullets through the heads of those attacking piranhas.

Bob snaps after a couple of minutes back to the reality and gives a silent laugh. He then softly touches his favorite gun which he is hiding under his feathers and sighs relieved when he finds him there. He continues to follow Grace.

"Yes, Bob, there is indeed a shooting room." Grace says with a smile. "Here we require all agents, guards, et cetera, to be able to at least know _how _to use a gun." She says and glances back at him. Grace sees Bob touch his side and guesses that he must carry a gun with him already. "So...For how long have you been shooting?" She asks as she turns down another hallway.

Bob looks at Grace. "Does that mean I have to shoot today too?" He asks a bit happily and then thinks for a moment. "As long as I can remember, madame. My mother taught me when I was little. I think I was 6 when I shoot for the first time." He says with a smile as he thinks back at those times.

Grace thinks for a moment and then nods. "Later, yes, I'll have to evaluate both your physical and gun training..." She says. She listens to Bob with a hidden impressed smile. "So, you're most likely going to be a very accurate shot, correct?" She asks.

Bob nods. "Physical too?" He asks a bit disappointed. He then shrugs. "That really depends on your definition of _'very accurate'..._" He says.

"Well, how many bullseyes out of fifty do you think you could hit?" Grace asks as she turns down another hall. "And here's the shooting room." She says as she stops waddling and motions towards it.

Bob shrugs a little again. "I don't know..." He lies. "Depends on how hard the range is." He says. He really doesn't want to brag in front of his boss. He thinks she might think of him as someone who thinks he can do anything and besides that, he doesn't know the average of hit bullseyes in this base. But he knows perfectly well that with a little of luck he can range between the 48 and 50 straight bullseyes.

Grace nods. "I see..." She says. She then thinks for a moment about where else she should show him. Grace glances at the time on her phone; it makes the tour decision for her. "Okay, now we're going to the labs." She says and waddles a bit quicker in the direction of some elevators. If they do not hurry, she'll be late for the meeting and demonstration and Marian would not be happy with her.

Bob nods. "Alright, madame." He says and follows her to the elevators. He wonders why she waddles so quickly, but keeps his beak shut about it.

Grace nods and pushes the elevator button. She a bit impatiently taps her foot a little as she waits for it to come. "Come on, come on..." She mutters silently as she wills the elevator to hurry up. As soon as the elevator opens, Grace grabs Bob's flipper and drags him quickly into the elevator before pushing a hidden button for the labs.

"Woah!" Bob exclaims a bit silently and surprised as Grace drags him into the elevator. 'Is she even allowed to do that?' He wonders silently as he waits in the elevator. He didn't really mind it though... Not at all, actually.

Grace impatiently taps her flipper lightly against the wall of the elevator as she waits in it. She glances at the time on her phone again. "Darn..." She mutters silently. "We're just barely going to make it on time." She sighs a little and gets a bit mad at the slower than slow elevator. She taps her flipper a bit faster in her impatience on the wall. When it opens again she grabs Bob's flipper once again and drags him briskly down the hall towards the lab.

Bob follows Grace quickly through the base. "On time for what?" He asks curiously. 'Well, at least I don't have to put much energy in waddling this way...' He thinks with a silent laugh.

"A meeting I have with a scientist about her newest thingamajig." Grace says as she drags Bob briskly down the hall. She sees the lab room door and opens it quickly before pulling Bob in behind her.

"What's a thingamajig?" Bob asks a bit confused. He tries to shake his flipper a little to get rid of the numb feeling in it. 'I wonder why she didn't just slide to this place...' He thinks silently as he tries to relax the now somewhat aching muscles in his flipper.

Grace shrugs as she waddles more into the room. "It's an invention of some sort...Occasionally life-threatening...And sometimes even useful!...Though those useful ones are a whole lot rarer than the life-threatening ones..." She murmurs the last part as she sees a scientist. Grace stops and gives the feline scientist a nod. "Dr. Osvalda Ocelot." She says.

"GLC Gray." Osvalda says with a nod back. "Who's the hombre*? " She asks curiously as she adjusts her safety-glasses some.

"This is LG Bob. I was just giving him his newbie tour." Grace says. "Anyway, you said you have something you wanted to show me?" She says a bit curiously.

Osvalda nods. "Indeed I do, miss." She says and walks over to a table with something on it hidden by a sheet. Osvalda grabs the white cloth with her paw and yanks it off.

Bob gives the scientist a nod too. 'Life-threatening? What do I have to think of that?' He thinks silently. He watches Dr. Osvalda curiously and glances at Grace too. He then sees another female penguin standing at the other side of the room, behind glass. "Is that that Commander Marian you told me about earlier?" Bob asks silently with a nod to the penguin.

Grace looks at Bob and then over at the glass before nodding. "Yup, that's her..." She says and then returns her attention to Osvalda and her invention. "So...Uhm...What's that?" She asks.

"Grace–er...GLC Gray, this is a new grade of laser-cannon weaponry." Dr. Osvalda says as she lovingly runs her paw along the side of it.

Bob looks at the cat and the weapon. "And that blue wire there... Is supposed to be unattached?" Bob asks a bit curiously as he looks it over.

"Blue wire? What blue wire?" Osvalda asks and gives Bob a funny look before looking over the invention. "Oh...This blue wire..." She mutters and then attaches the wire to something in the cannon.

Bob faceflippers a little and then looks at Grace. He wonders how such a scientist could have gotten a job in a place like this. Forgetting wires that should be attached seems like a pretty serious problem for Bob, even though he doesn't have that much knowledge of science. He glances nervously at Grace. 'Is this what she meant by 'life-threatening'?' He wonders silently.

Grace looks at the ocelot. "Is it ready now?" She asks.

"It should be, miss." Osvalda says with a small nod and flips a switch on the laser-cannon's side. Nothing happens. Dr. Osvalda frowns and tries switching the switch again.

Bob looks at the invention. "And the green one, madame?" He suggest politely as he sees another lose wire. "Scientists..." He mutters under his breath.

"Tell me about it..." Grace says silently to Bob with a silent laugh.

Osvalda looks curiously at the green wire. "I could have sworn I had this already attached..." She mumbles and attaches it to the blue wire that had also been loose before.

Bob laughs a bit silently with Grace and then looks over the invention. He thinks that it doesn't look really stable, but what does he know about it?

Grace looks at Osvalda again. "Everything attached now?" She asks.

"Yes, I believe so..." Dr. Osvalda says with a slightly unsure undertone. She flips the switch again. The machine starts rattling and shaking around on the table-top.

Bob looks at the invention. "That doesn't look bon*..." He silently says.

Grace looks at the cannon and then at Osvalda. "Is it supposed to do that?" She asks.

Osvalda shakes her head. "N-No, ma'am, it's not." She says with wide eyes.

Grace looks at the machine again. It is now shaking violently and sounds rather angry. Some steam has started to pour from the device. "She's going to blow!" Grace exclaims and then as if on cue, the invention explodes. Grace grabs Dr. Osvalda and pulls her behind the desk as she simultaneously tackles Bob and makes him fall behind the fire-proof desk, too.

Bob slightly hits his head against the desk as Grace tackles him. "Oof." He says silently and remains on the ground for a couple of seconds before getting really quickly up and looking over the desk at the invention. It is still on fire and he quickly reaches for a fire extinguisher to put it out. "So much for that invention." He says as he looks at the smoking thing and the pieces on the ground. He puts the extinguisher on the ground again. "And that extinguisher needs a refill. It is rather empty." He says.

Osvalda runs over to her invention. "Oh, no, no, no, no!" She exclaims and picks up some scattered pieces of the failed laser-cannon.

Grace gets up and looks at Osvalda. "Feel free to try again..." She mutters and looks at the extinguisher. "It needs another refill already? I just filled it the day before yesterday!" She sighs a little.

Bob looks at Grace. "_You_ filled it?" He asks a bit surprised. He thought that that really was a job for scientists and cleaners... Not for commando-penguins. He softly rubs the place on his head at which he had hit the table. "Great, that is going to be a small bump..." He mutters barely audible.

Grace shrugs a little. "It wasn't in my job description, true...But then half the stuff I do isn't in it either..." She says and then looks at the ocelot scientist. "I guess we had better leave her to morn her experiment..." Grace says silently to Bob and opens the door.

Bob nods and follows Grace. 'Well that clarifies things... Does she do it because she doesn't have a life besides this job or because she is just a workaholic?' Bob thinks. 'Or both...' He silently thinks. He has never really been a workaholic, he always has chosen the easy rides and he has always made sure to have enough free time for his wife and son... And friends... And hobbies... He wonders for a couple of minutes what it would be like to have not all those things. He can't really.

Grace glances at her phone. Lunchtime. She glances back at Bob and starts waddling towards the slow elevator again. She pushes the button for it and waits for it.

With a small smile, Bob looks at Grace. "When are you going to test me?" He asks a bit nervously, but at the same time a bit excited to try out this shooting range.

Grace thinks for a moment. "How about after my shift today?" She suggests with a small shrug. She impatiently pushes the up-button again on the elevator.

"And how late does that certain shift end, madam?" Bob asks politely. He then realizes he knows nothing about his new job... Not even the times of it. He looks at Grace pushing the button of the elevator. "With all due respect, madame, pushing that button is not going to make him go faster..." He says and then adds silently; "It even increases the chances of him breaking."

Grace glances at Bob with a bit of annoyance and then takes a silently deep breath to keep herself in check. "My shift ends at 1730." She says. The elevator finally arrives and Grace gets onto it and has it hold the doors open for Bob.

Bob nods. "And... Euhm... Madame, do you have any idea when mine ends?" He asks a bit silently. He really wonders how he is going to find out everything he needs to know about his new job if nobody tells it him. He gets into the elevator.

Grace thinks for a moment as she presses the button for the main floor. "If I remember correctly, your shift is over at 1800." She says. "But I may be wrong...I'll check when we're near my office again." She says thoughtfully.

"Alright." Bob says and then thinks a little with a slightly tilted head. "But if I have to go see you after your shift... Then I miss half an hour of my own, madame." He says as he waits in the elevator.

Grace nods. "True...Okay, so how about after _your_ shift then?" She says and looks at him. She thinks there isn't anything that she will need to hurry home about anyway...Not that she ever leaves on time already as it is.

"That sounds good." Bob nods and then gets out his cellphone and texts Risette the time he expects himself to come home with a small sigh.

"Okay." Grace says with a nod. She stands there in the elevator waiting for it to open and glances over at Bob and his phone curiously. She then remembers about that lady she had seen him with earlier. "So...Um, who was that lady you were with earlier?" She asks curiously. "Little sister?" She asks with an almost invisible hopeful undertone.

Bob finishes texting and shakes his head. "No..." He says a bit silently and looks away from Grace. "She is my wife..." He says as he thinks about their 'au revoirs*' he puts his phone away as the elevator doors open.

* * *

_Translations French:_

_*Fusil : gun_

_*Bon : good_

_* Au revoirs : goodbyes_

_Translation Spanish:_

_*Hombre : Man_


	3. Confusing Paperwork

**Chapter 3: Confusing Paperwork**

'Fish-sticks.' Grace thinks and mentally frowns, but outwardly smiles a little at Bob. "Oh, okay." She says completely hiding the disappointment that she is feeling. She steps out of the elevator and waits for Bob. Grace wonders if there's ever going to be a guy perfect for her who is single and who'll ever come to the base. She highly doubts it, seeing as how she's been working here at this base for a little less than ten years and still hasn't seen a guy that fits the bill exactly. This LG Bob would have...If he wasn't already married. Grace inwardly sighs a little.

Bob waddles behind Grace. "She and my little boy are the main reason why I wanted this position." He says with a smile. "Risette wants more money on flipper and you travel so much as an agent..." He says a bit slowly. "Eddy is really happy that now I'll be able to be with him more." He says with a somewhat bigger smile as he thinks about his one-year old chick. He figures it is inappropriate to ask Grace about her private life, though he is a bit curious about it.

"That's nice..." Grace says with a small forced smile that doesn't appear to be all that forced. 'So he already has a child, too? Drat.' She thinks unhappily. She continues to waddle towards the lunch-room. She thinks back a bit about her own private life...There isn't much to think about...Not anymore anyway. She had once had a fiancée, but that was before she walked in one night on him having a threesome in _her_ bed. That relationship had obviously not worked out for obvious reasons. Nowadays she is 'actively' searching for a guy, but still hasn't came up with any results. Grace inwardly sighs a little. Lately her private life has contained nothing more than going home to an empty, silent house every night after work. Maybe with the occasional phone call from her friend Lucy in Tennessee, or maybe even a rarer call from her sister, Darla.

Grace sees the lunch-room door and opens it. "And here is the lunch-room, mess-hall, whatever-you-call-it." She says.

"La cantine*?" Bob offers with a small smile as he looks around. "Isn't it lunch time soon, madame?" He asks as he looks at all the guards sitting at tables and eating and laughing with each other.

Grace nods. "It's lunch time now, as a matter-of-fact." She says. "Hence why we're here..." She adds in a silent mutter. She never has been super fond of the lunch-room here...There are just way too many decisions on what to choose for lunch and too many employees around at the same time, which made making the food decision even harder for her. Therefore, she typically just skips lunch and continues working, or if she feels like it, will bring her own lunch from home. She had planned to just skip it today, but seeing as how she's having to show the new, cute LG around, she guesses she'll just have to deal with trying to order something for today's lunch.

Bob nods and continues to look around the lunchroom. He wonders if Grace just meant that she would have lunch with him and then he looks at her with a somewhat weird look. 'Did she just invite me for some sort of lunch-date? Is this a formal one? Or not?' He thinks confused. 'I did tell her about my son and my wife, didn't I?' He wonders silently and continues to look at the lunchroom, without moving.

Grace looks at the lunch-room and then glances at Bob. She sees his somewhat weird look and wonders if she had said something weird. She then gets to thinking it'd be rather weird if she ate lunch with her new employee even if he's cute...And that she'd probably make a total fool of herself trying to order something for lunch anyway. Grace looks at Bob. "Well, I think this is it for the tour for now. If you have any questions later on, feel free to drop by my office and ask..." She says with a small nod. She then turns and starts towards the door. Just the thought of possibly having to order lunch here had made her a little dizzy.

With a small nod, Bob turns to the crowded lunchroom. He wonders if he really had to eat his lunch here, in a crowded place full of penguins he doesn't know a thing about... He decides to check out what the grilled kipper he actually had to do for his work first. He wasn't really hungry anyway, seeing how he was still a little nervous about his new job. He kind of slowly waddles back to his office, trying to remember which way he had to go to get there.

Grace waddles towards her office with a small sigh. "Grace, you're such an idiot..." She mutters to herself as she waddles to her office. "You should have known he was taken just by the fact that he's cute..." She mumbles really silently to herself. "And now you feel disappointed because you made an idiotic mistake and created false hopes..." She opens her office door with a small sigh and sits down again behind her desk. She picks up her favorite pen and looks at it and her paperwork a bit bored. For the first time in a while, she really doesn't feel like working on it.

Bob finds his office after some time of waddling around and he sits down behind his desk. He looks at an, in his opinion, enormous pile of papers with his name on it. "And what do I have to do with these babies?" He mutters silently as he takes one of the papers and looks over it. It seems to him that they are nice little papers, but he has no clue what he should do with them whatsoever. He tips his beak with a pen he had just received out of his case and looks at the first blank spot.

Grace finally pushes herself to work on her mountain of paperwork. She knows it's not quite a mountain; she has seen how much Commander Marian has to do. Now _that_ was a lot of paperwork. Grace works determinedly on her work and wipes some of her feathers, that had come loose from her bun, out of her eyes. She finishes one stack of work and looks at the clock. There's still quite a while until she has to check LG Bob's training.

Biting his pen, Bob thinks hardly on what to fill in at the blank spot. This was nothing like the action filled missions he had been doing before. He finally got the answer to the first blank and then moved to the second. His problem started all over again and he bites a small part from his pen.

Grace works back on the rest of her paperwork and has it finished quickly. She looks at the clock again and sighs a bit irritably. There is still a few hours until 1800. Grace gently sets her pen down and drums her flipper on her desk for a moment, feeling very bored. "Hmmm...What to do, what to do..." She mumbles to herself as she tries to think of something to pass the time by doing. "I guess I could go train some myself..." She mumbles to herself with a shrug and gets up. She waddles somewhat slowly out of her office and slows down just a bit more as she passes Bob's new office. Grace glances at it as she passes.

Bob mumbles a bit to himself as he starts filling out the third blank spot on the paper. He turns it around for a quick moment and looks at it with somehow wide eyes. "Well... I really wonder how I am to figure out _that_ stuff..." He mumbles silently and then wonders if he hadn't missed a hint or something that could help him solve these blank fill-in problems. He starts taping his pen and looks at the blank with narrowed eyes. "Come on... They wouldn't have given you this job if they thought you couldn't do it..." He tells himself as he gets a bit irritated by the blanks. And then considering how he was just at the first page of his stack... Bob sighs.

Grace continues onward to the training room. It is completely empty, since everyone else is either working or still on duty. She sighs a little and looks a bit boredly around. "I guess I could work on perfecting that new move I've been working on..." She mumbles.

"And that makes one paper..." Bob mumbles as he finally finishes that paper. He then takes a new paper and looks at it. "I bet this one will go easier now that I have figured out... Oh..." He mumbles as he sees the paper that is not only more work but also more difficult and looks nothing like the previous one.

Grace waddles over to the pull-ups bar. She climbs up it so that she is sitting on top of the bar itself. She then looks at a mat that she has laid out on the floor. "Okay, Grace. Let's try to land on the mat this time..." She mutters to herself as she aims herself.

Bob works silently on the papers. Now that he is in for five or so he finally kind of got the hang of it. He works a bit faster on it, though he already misses his field work and missions, especially the ones where he got to use his gun, or had to be medic for.

"On three... One, two, three!" Grace mutters before she leaps off of the bar. She tucks herself into a ball and starts flipping. She flips five times before landing just beside the mat. "Yeow!" She exclaims softly. She sits up and glares at the mat. "Stupid mat..." She growls at it before standing up and pulling it over a little. "And that was so close to right, too...I just need to tuck more and get two more flips in...And land on the stupid mat." She murmurs. She waddles back over to the pull-ups bar.

"And that was the last one." Bob says silently as he looks at the papers. He lays down his pen and glances at the clock. He then starts to get his stuff together.

Grace climbs back up onto the pull-ups bar. She aims again, but then climbs back down. The mat still didn't look like it is over far enough for her to land on it for sure. Grace tugs the mat over a little more and looks at it. "That should do it..." She mutters before climbing back up on top of the bar. She aims again and then leaps once more from the bar.

Bob gets all his stuff from his office and waddles to the trainings room. He looks around and sees that it is practically empty, except for Grace training her... Bob actually doesn't know what the grilled kipper she was doing, but it seems dangerous to him. He leans against the wall as he watches her.

Grace curls up into a ball as she jumps from the bar and flips seven times. She then uncurls herself and lands flippers first on the mat. Grace does a quick back flip as she simultaneously pulls a small hidden gun from her feathers and lands on her feet in a ready to fight or shoot stance. She is completely oblivious of Bob's presence in the room as she happily puts her gun back up and does a small celebratory flipper-pump. "Yes!"

Bob looks impressed at Grace and slowly and a bit softly claps in his flippers. He knows that it normally isn't really appreciated around in the trainings room, but seeing how there were no other penguins in it and he was really impressed... Bob just claps and smiles a little at Grace. 'I hope that_isn't _the quality of fighting she expects of me...' He silently thinks.

Grace hears the sudden clapping and turns quickly around with slightly wide eyes. "Oh kipper..." She mumbles slightly embarrassed as she sees Bob leaning against the wall. She then looks at the clock and then at Bob. "Euhm...Ready for the training test?" She asks as she tries to get herself composed. She silently wonders about for how long he's been standing there and if he had seen her epic fail attempt earlier. She hopes not.

Bob nods. "Sure." He says a bit nervously and gets away from the wall. "Is shooting or combat first?" He asks as he once again softly touches his side to feel for his favorite gun.

"How about shooting?" Grace says with a nod towards the door. She remembers that she still needs to grab a guard for Bob to fight against to check his combat training. She then remembers her clip-board and pen is in her office. "Do you remember the way to the shooting room? I need to go get something from my office first..." She says and looks at Bob.

"I do, madame." Bob replies with a small nod and then quickly slides away to the shooting room and waits there. He wonders if he is allowed to warm up some already... He is tempted to go on and try, but decides against it and waits for Grace while getting his favorite small gun out and his second favorite too. He lovingly loads them both. "Who are going to be a couple of good, nice little gun-ies?" He says a bit lovingly to them.

Grace nods and then slides off to her office. She looks around for her clipboard and grabs it. She then finds her favorite blue pen under her desk and gets it, too. 'Now to find a decent guard...' She thinks. She slides out of her office towards the gun-room. She could always grab a random guard after she evaluates his shooting.

Bob waits a bit impatiently in the shooting room with his guns all ready. He wonders what kind of exercises he is going to get, though he would be happy to just starting shooting now, without really caring about the level of the course. He lets his favorite gun make a clicking noise.

Grace slides up to the shooting room and up to beside Bob. She then stands up and wipes some of her feathers out of her eyes. "Alright, let's go check your shooting skills." She says and opens the door for Bob.

* * *

_Translations:_

_*La cantine : the canteen_


	4. Shooting Bullseyes

**Chapter 4: Shooting Bullseyes**

Bob nods. "Alright, madame." He says as he holds on tighter to his guns as he waddles in. "I can use these, right? I don't have to shoot with such a lame and abused gun from the base, have I?" He asks a bit concerned. He doesn't enjoy shooting with those, they always have a slight deviation to, in most cases, the right and are never really taken good care of. Bob plays some with his loaded guns in his flippers.

Grace looks at Bob and glances at his guns. "Sure." She nods. She herself never used the base guns ever anyway. Grace follow Bob inside and takes out her clipboard and pen.

Bob nods and gets ready in the shooting stance. "When do I begin?" He asks impatiently and looks at the targets. Most of them seem to be solid ones, though further back in the shooting hall there seem to be moving ones as well. Bob makes sure nobody is around and controls his gun again.

"Whenever you're ready." Grace says and looks at him.

Bob nods and starts shooting. He first takes two bullseyes right in the middle of one target like he is supposed to, but then he starts moving to a different one and does a flip as he does so. He hits that one straight in the bullseye too and then makes a different move to the next target. He isn't even really showing off, he is just following his now normal, and for him, easy training schedule.

Grace watches and follows Bob with surprised and slightly wide-eyes. She is impressed. Grace makes some notes on his training report as she watches him. 'Note to self; if I ever need a good-shot, find him.' She thinks silently to herself.

Bob moves further through the shooting hall towards the moving and harder targets. He takes out his second gun in a flip and shoots both of them at the same time. He then finishes without even breaking a sweat. He smiles a little as he sees that he bullseyed everything and then turns to Grace. "To answer your earlier question, madame Gray." He says politely. "I think I can shoot 49/50 on an easy range like this." He smirks somewhat.

Grace looks at him and nods. "Actually, Bob, if I counted correctly that was 50/50..." She says and jots something down on the report. She tries not to seem as impressed as she actually is feeling. "Shall we go check your combat skills now?" She asks.

"Well, lets not get too enthusiastic." Bob says with a small laugh. "I hit the last one with a slight deviation to the left." He says as he evaluates his shots. "That one definitely could have been better." He says and then nods. "Sure..." His smile fades away a little.

Grace nods and opens the door. She is still impressed that finally there's a penguin at the base that is a better shot than her. She is glad. Grace now glances around for a decent guard as she waits for Bob. 'Ah! He'd be fine.' She thinks as she sees one of the guards waddle by. "Jeff! Stop a moment!" She orders the guard.

The guard stops and gives Grace a nervous salute. "Y-Yes, ma'am?" He asks.

"I need to have you fight against LG Bob for his evaluation." She says.

"Oh...Okay, ma'am." He nods and starts waddling towards the training room.

Grace nods and watches him waddle towards the training room before glancing back at Bob.

Bob follows Grace and the guard towards the training room. He swallows a little as he thinks about the last evaluation fight he had had. He had been very fast, but also really clumsy and had lost his balance after a couple of movements so he had been easy to get down. And that was basically how every fight before that one had went. He had come in too fast, lost his balance or his concentration and was easily down.

Grace and the guard enter the training room. Grace drags the mat out from where she had left it out into the middle of the floor. She then waddles back over to the wall and leans against it. She nods towards Jeff and Bob. "Begin when you're ready." She says.

"I come at Jeff or Jeff comes at me?" Bob asks nervously at Grace. He is already in his fighting stance and is planning on coming in really quickly.

Grace shrugs. "Doesn't matter, one of you just starts." She says and looks at them.

Bob nods and comes into the fight with a flip in a really high speed. He rapidly starts attacking Jeff, though letting almost constantly his defenses down.

Jeff fights Bob back mostly in his own defense before hitting at Bob a bit in offense.

Grace watches and takes notes. 'Leaves his defenses open for the enemy... That's not very good...' She thinks as she takes notes. 'He'll definetly need to get some specialized training on that...'

Bob moves quickly and manages to, kind of, evade Jeff's attack though it lacks completely in the correctness of the moves and is basically only focused on going really quick. He starts to lose his balance and tries to regain it again, but he has overwhelmed himself with his speed and starts stumbling. "Why can't I just shoot the guy?" He mutters a bit irritated under his breath. This was exactly what had happened all those other times before.

Grace frowns a little as she watches. 'Looses balance because he tries to fight too quickly...Hmm...' She thinks as she writes things down. "Enough." She orders as she looks at Bob and Jeff and waddles over to the mat.

Bob gives a nod to Jeff and then looks disappointed at the floor. "Well, that was interesting..." He mumbles silently under his breath. "Why the grilled kipper can't we just always use our guns?" He mumbles.

"We can't always use our guns, because what if you're trying to _sneak in_ to a location? A gun shot would give you away. And then there's those _lovely_ times when your gun runs out of bullets and if you can't fight by flipper, then you're as good as gone, Bob." Grace says as she had heard his mumbling. She motions to Jeff that he may leave now and he does. She then looks at Bob some more. "Now, have you ever even _had_ any combat training?" She asks curiously.

Bob looks at Grace. "It was a rhetorical question, madame." He says unamused and a bit dryly before shrugging. "Not much..." He says a bit silently. "I mostly had medic training when there was combat training..." He says.

Grace looks at Bob. 'Its a real good thing that you're cute and a good shot...' She thinks silently. "Alright. Well, we'll have to do some specialized training for you for sure...Mostly on keeping ones guard up and not loosing balance due to concentrating too much on speed, does that sound about right, Bob?" She asks.

"Sure." Bob says a bit silently. He is still a bit beating himself up for failing the fighting. He looks at the ground and thinks that he really dislikes flipper-to-flipper combat.

Grace nods. "We can start that tomorrow." She says. She jots something more down on the report.

"Great." Bob says not at all enthusiastic. "After work?" He asks and already knows that Risette and Edmond probably wouldn't be happy about that at all.

Grace nods. "Yes, after work." She says looking at him. "There isn't a problem with that, is there, Bob?"

"No madame..." Bob says a bit silently as he thinks about how he had promised Edmond and Risette to go out tomorrow evening. He swallows a bit as he already imagines the angry rant he is going to get and the disappointed face of his son. "No problem at all..." He bites his tongue a little.

"Good." Grace says. "You may go now." She says and starts towards the door herself. She now is going to see if she can possibly try to find something to keep her at work a little longer.

Bob gives a small nod to Grace. "Good day, madame." He says with a quick salute before sliding out of the base really quickly to his car. He knew that Risette probably already would be waiting for him and he doesn't want to make her angry... Or probably more angry by coming later home than possible.

* * *

Bob drives his car to his house and thinks about everything that is waiting for him there. He sighs a little and drives a bit slowly through a traffic jam. After some time, Bob parks his car in front of his house and gets out of the black car with a sigh. He lets his flipper run down his face. "What a day..." He mumbles and then looks back at the car as he locks it. "And then to think tomorrow is going to be the same or maybe even worse..." He silently mumbles as he waddles to his front door. He opens it and looks around. "Risette, Eddy! I am home!" He calls out, trying to sound happy and lively. A small boy chick slides towards him and Bob kneels to hug him. "How is my little Eddy?" He asks and Edmond hugs him too. "Daddy home! Daddy home!" He happily says and Bob gives him a small kiss on his cheek. "Yes, he is." He says softly to his son.

Risette waddles out from the kitchen with her flippers crossed. "What took you so long? You said you would be home hours ago!" She says with a frown.

Bob looks up to Risette and his smile fades away a little. "I had an evaluation with my boss, GLC Gray." He says as he continues to hug his son. "I know I had promised to be home right after my shift... But this was really important." He says as he tries to make himself a little smaller under the look of his wife. He softly lets go of his son.

"Daddy, pway wi' me?" Edmond asks in his sweet little voice and looks with big eyes at his dad. Bob looks at Edmond with a small and somewhat sad smile. "I am sorry, Eddy." He says as he feels a small pang of guilt. He had not only been able to not keep his promise to his son to play with him, but with a second glance at the clock too, he saw that he had also missed dinner and their favorite TV show. "But we can't play now, it is bedtime." He softly ruffles the feathers on his boy's head. Besides that all, he was feeling really tired from today and when he looked at Risette's expression, he knew that he hadn't seen the end of it yet too.

Risette gives Bob a look before turning and waddling to their room, she didn't want to make a fuss about it all in front of their son.

"Risette, wait!" Bob calls out behind Risette, but he already knows it is a lost case. "Come on, Eddy, let daddy tug you in." He says softly and he takes Edmond's flipper softly in his and waddles with him to Edmond's room. He softly helps him in the bed and gives him a kiss. "Good night, sweet boy of mine." He says softly and tucks him in. He then turns on the night-light and turns off the big light. He looks at his son one last time before closing the door a little, but not completely. He softly and silently walks to the main bedroom.

Risette sits grumpily on her bed and looks with a glare towards the door as she waits for Bob. She couldn't stand it when things didn't go the way she wanted them to go. She mumbles silently some words under her breath in her displeasure.

Bob opens the door of their room and looks at Risette with a small apologizing smile. "Risette..." He says softly. "There really was no other way around, you know, I have tried!" He says as he shields himself from an expected attack from her.

"Of course you _tried_. You always _try_." Risette says and rolls her eyes. "But have you yet succeeded? Hmm, I don't think so, Bobo." She says a bit angrily with her flippers folded in front of her chest.

Bob looks at Risette. "But what the flying kippers did I have to do then? I thought you wanted me to get this job too!" Bob brings in. "And I can't just waddle out of the base as my boss tells me to do something. That's insubordination! And that means that they fire me, and that, dear, is going to cost your holiday to Paris!" Bob says. He is totally not in the mood for this.

Risette looks at Bob with narrowed eyes and a soft grwl. "Well, it is not only _my _holiday! And don't you care about your son anymore? Is he just something you can set on a shelf when playtime is over and get out again when you want to, to you?" She says angrily.

Bob looks at Risette and then lays down on the bed with a sigh and starts watching the ceiling. "No..." He says silently. "No, he is not something like that too me at all."

Risette lays angrily down next to Bob, steaming and all. "Edmond was really sad you know. When it became later and later and later. You just don't care about us!" She says angrily.

"Risette, please! You know, I do care! I tried everything to get home on time!" Bob answers. "I have that job for you and mon fils*. Not because I want it that badly!" He says a bit agitated.

Risette rolls her eyes. "Don't lie to yourself. You know perfectly well you want this all as badly as I do." She says in an almost hissing voice. "Besides that, _your fils,_ didn't want to eat his vegetables today. If you were here you could have helped me, but noooooo... You were too busy with fooling around at your job."

Bob looks a bit hurt at the ceiling and remains silent. He remembers how he had wished at work to be at home... Now he kind of wishes to be at work again. Failing at being a good fighter sounded as much more fun to him than failing as husband.

* * *

Grace goes back to her office and sits down with a small sigh. She glances around at her empty desk and wishes that she hadn't finished all of her work already. She also hopes that Marian wouldn't remember to drop by... She probably would order her to go home anyway. She gets onto her computer and plays a game of solitaire. She can't stop thinking about Bob, though.

Commander Marian waddles happily through the base. Besides that she had gotten a nice email from the guard she has had an eye on for some long time, Eric, she also had finished her work really easily and early today. And that is also why she is waddling an extra round through her base. She hides her smile as she passes some guards and some agents and then puts it back on as she waddles back to her office. Most of her co-workers are already back home, seeing how their shift had ended some time ago, but there were still some lights on in some offices. Marian waddles to the offices and she shuts off all the lights and closes the doors. "Note to self; Hang a note on the bulletin board saying that everybody should make sure to shut off his or hers own office before leaving." She mumbles as she passes the third office with lights on and an unlocked door.

Marian then waddles towards some of the last offices of the block, those of that new penguin she had seen earlier by some sort of catastrophic experiment and the one of her GLC, Gray. She laughs a bit mentally at her own joke; '**cat**-a-stroph-ic'. She then frowns as she sees the lights on in Gray's office and waddles to it. She knocks a couple of times on the office door.

Grace looks away from her solitaire game at the door. "Oh kipper..." She mutters. "Come in." She says at the door.

Marian waddles into the office with a small. "Grace." She says. "Why aren't you at home yet?" She asks then a bit softly. "Your shift ended hours ago and you know how I feel about penguins staying in the base tired and all after shifts if they are not going to train. It is dangerous." She says with a small smile as she invites herself to sit in the chair at Grace's desk. "Besides that, I don't want to lose my best General Lieutenant Commander because she has worked herself into a fit." She says with her small and happy sounding laugh. Though Marian always had a dangerous and very busy job which always brought a lot of stress on her, she stayed happy most of the time. Maybe that was why the higher-ups called her 'the joker'. But when they were perfectly serious, they had to admit that she was probably the best commander in quite some time.

Grace looks at Marian. "I...Euhm...Had to assess the training of that new LG, Bob...And I did a bit of training myself." She says.

Marian takes Grace's computer screen and turns it so she can see it. "Uh-huh. That's why you're playing a useless card-game on a base computer." She says with a laugh. "But how is he?" Commander Marian asks. "Is he good enough for the job?"

"Well, he needs a lot of work on his combat training...But he's a very, very excellent shot. He got 50/50 in fact..." Grace says with a smile. She can't help but think about all of those impressive and cute flips he did. "Too bad he's already married..." Grace mumbles really silently to herself.

Marian looks at Grace. "50 out of 50? You are sure you counted that right? Or did you favor him with an easy course?" She asks with a laugh and then frowns a little. "Grace. How many times do I have to tell you that my base is not a dating service? And I saw the way you were looking at him... As a lion ready to jump on its pray." Marian adds.

"No, I didn't count wrong or give him an easy course. He even threw in some flips! Flipping flips!" Grace says looking at Marian. "And well, even if I _did_ like him like that, Marian. I can't. He's been caught by some other lioness..." She gives an inaudible sigh. "And has a chick, too." She frowns a little.

"Flips too? That's impressive for a penguin who has been a medic." Marian says and then laughs a little. "Oh, Grace. Do you ever just forget the fishes in the sea and enjoy swimming for a bit? There is plenty of time to catch one after you have improved your swimming." She says with a smile.

"I can swim just fine, thank you very much, Marian. We just need better quality fish to swim after." Grace says with a small sigh. "And what's the fun of swimming if there's no one to swim after?"

"You're a real piece of work, Grace." Marian says with a small sigh. "So why don't you just get your tail feathers together and search for something outside the base? If you found one guy that _does_ meet your _extremely_ high standards, you would at least be able to be together!" She says.

Grace looks at Marian. "Euhm...I don't know, Marian..." She says silently.

"Well, maybe it is with how you don't spend any time actually _outside _the base." Marian offers. She then takes Grace's flipper and drags her from her chair. "Come on you, go ahead, go home." She says as she reaches over for Grace's bag and pushes it in her flippers. "Shoo!" She says with a laugh.

"B-But—" Grace kind of stutters as Marian pushes her bag into her flippers.

"But? What's wrong with my but?" Marian asks as she gets a scarf from Grace's peg and wraps it around her neck. She then pushes Grace out of the office and shuts and locks it. "Now, go. And that is an order." Marian says as she pushes Grace towards the door.

Grace looks at Marian and then sighs a little. "Yes, ma'am." She says with a small salute and starts towards the door. She looks back over her shoulder once at her office before continuing going out the door to her bright red car. Grace then gets into the car and drives loathingly towards her house. It's not that Grace doesn't like her house, but she doesn't like the lonely silence of it. That harsh, painful silence that she could probably hear a pen drop on the floor on the main level if she was upstairs.

She parks her car outside of her house and then slowly unlocks her door and waddles inside with another small sigh. "Good evening, house. Did you miss me?" She mutters as she sets her bag down in the living room. She takes her scarf off and hangs it up before waddling back to her bag and pulling out a small tape-recorder with which she sets down on the couch.

"Grace's Log." She says after pressing the recording button. "Today the new LG came to the base. His name is Bob and he's _really_ cute... But he's also already married and has a son. He is an excellent shot, but a terrible flipper-to-flipper fighter. I'll have to work with him on that for sure." She says to the recorder. "Dr. Osvalda had another experimental laser thingy to show me today... It exploded... Again. I also lost my temper on a guard again and nearly sent him to the hospital." She sighs. "I really didn't mean to... But well, I guess I just really lost my head when I heard him mutter behind my back as I waddled past that I was an 'uncaring witch'... Marian's right. I really do need to find a better way to deal with my anger problems." Grace says. "She also right that it's probably about time I start looking other places besides at the base for a possible guy... But that LG Bob. Mmm. It's really too bad that he's already married...If he wasn't, he'd be perfect. I mean, he fits every detail of my requirements! But... I will not interfere with his marriage... Or, at least I don't think I will. I won't try to interfere with it on purpose is more what I mean... And there's nothing wrong with having a bit of 'eye candy' at work even though I can't have him... Right?" Grace looks at her ceiling for a moment deep lost in her thoughts. "Well, at least I don't think there's anything wrong with that... Over and out." Grace turns off the tape recorder and puts it back away in her bag before continuing upstairs to her bedroom and getting ready for bed.

* * *

_Translations:_

_Mon fils : My son_


	5. The First Training Session

**A.N.— Here's our next chapter! We hope you all enjoy :D**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The First Training Session**

Bob wakes up slowly and rubs his eyes. He glances over at the alarm clock and then shuts his eyes again. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't go back to sleep. Not that there was anymore use to it, he felt a bit too nervous too go back to sleep. He softly strokes some of Risette's feathers out of her eyes as she sleeps and then waddles to the room of his son. He softly kisses Edmond on his head before waddling to the kitchen and making a quick sandwich.

Bob finishes his sandwich and glances at the clock. He can't remember being ever so early out of bed for just a 'normal' day. Bob sighs and then waddles out of the door with his case and a small stack of papers in his flipper. He gets into his black, business like car and drives to his work. He was really early, like an hour for his shift, but he didn't really care. It made it easier for him to drive through the traffic, seeing how there almost was none. He felt like that if he had stayed any longer he would have been suffocated by Risette and Edmond. It was not like he didn't love them or didn't want to see them, he just didn't want to be yelled at and have Edmond's pleading voice in his head for the whole day, making him feel guilty about leaving and not showing up at home early... But even without hearing them, he felt pretty guilty about it.

He parks the car in front of the base on a parking spot and gets out. He looks around the almost empty parking lot. Only a view cars from the night shift were parked on it. He waddles a bit slowly into his office and sets his case and papers down, before getting out some framed photos. They all contained him, Risette and Edmond, or a view of only Edmond in some cute cloths. He smiles a little as he sets his favorite one on his desk and then he looks around the gray and emptiness of his office. "Maybe I should bring our old couch here and buy a new one for at home..." He mumbles silently. "Risette wants a new one for ages anyway..." He mumbles as he thinks on ways to decorate his office.

* * *

Grace wakes up as her alarm goes off. She looks at the clock with a sigh and gets up. Typically she manages to wake up about an hour before her alarm, but not this morning. Grace gets out of the bed and hops into the shower.

Once she finishes her shower, Grace pins her feathers up into a bun with a red band and puts on her make-up. She then goes to her kitchen and grabs a quick bite to eat before getting her bag and car keys and driving, still an hour early for her shift, to work.

Grace parks her bright red sport car in her parking spot at the base and gets out. She mentally starts planning out what all she will do or not today. She decides she'll do a bit of training before her shift starts, like usual. Grace starts waddling towards the base.

She waddles into the base and passes Bob's new office. She glances in it as she waddles by and is a bit surprised to see him in it. Grace then shrugs a little and continues on to her office. She unlocks her office and waddles in, setting her bag near her desk and her scarf on the hook by the door. She turns her computer on before waddling back out of her office towards Bob's again, just to make sure she hadn't been daydreaming already today.

Bob sees Grace waddling past his office and opens his mouth to greet her, but he is too late and she has already waddled past his office. He shrugs and turns on the computer on his desk. He looks at the pile of papers on his desk and starts on them.

Grace waddles a bit more slowly towards Bob's office. She looks in curiously. "Well, you're early..." She says.

"I know, madame... I hope it isn't a problem?" Bob replies politely as he sees Grace at his door. He lays down his pen and straightens the papers. He looks for a bit at Grace, just because he doesn't feel like working on his work for a second.

Grace shakes her head. "No, it's not a problem...It's just...A bit unusual. Most employees show up either right at the time their shift starts... Or late... Typically I'm the only one here who comes this early, so it's just a bit unusual, but a definitely okay unusual." She says, looking at him. She wonders if he's going to be this early every day, or if this is just a fluke.

Bob looks at Grace and manages a small smile before glancing at the photo on his desk. "I'm glad it is, madame." He says with a small nod, turning his attention to Grace again.

"Right... Well, I'll be letting you get back to your work now." Grace says after seeing him glance towards the picture on his desk. She nods a little and then waddles away from his office towards the training room.

Bob nods and then looks at the papers on his desk. Even though he managed to do them faster now, he was still doing them awfully slow for his likings and he wondered if he wasn't screwing miserably up on them.

* * *

Grace waddles into the training room. She drags out the mat to the middle and looks around. "Let's see... What kind of training do I want to do this morning...?" She mumbles a bit silently. She decides after some moments to do some simple, basic combat training.

She finishes up her extra hour in the training room practicing some of the easier routines. After that she gets a quick cup of coffee and slides back with it to her office. She sits down with her coffee at her desk and starts on her paperwork. Strangely, she isn't the greatest fan of all the papers, but she would hate it more if she had less or easier ones than usual. It was just her strange relationship with work. She looks a bit through the stack of work and sees that Marian has hidden some Commander work in it and smiles some. She continues to work on her paperwork and gets it all done fairly quickly. She completely forgets about having to train Bob some after work.

* * *

Bob just works and works on all his papers, without having a break, he didn't even go to get some coffee. After a couple of hours he receives a text on his phone. Bob takes out his telephone and opens the text a bit clumsily. He was never one for all that personal technology. 'Where were you this morning? R.' Bob lays the telephone aside and stares in front of him for a moment. He rubs his eyes with his flippers, and wishes that Risette would just have been fine with him having this job and being busy with it. After all, _she_ was the one who was always complaining about their lack of money._She_ was the one who had said that this would give them more freedom, more fun. But so far, Bob didn't see anything fun about it. 'Work.' He texts back with another sigh.

After not even a minute, Risette already send a text back. 'Edmond cried much this morning. He wanted his dad, but _no_, dad wasn't there even though he promised to be there.' Bob gets his head in his flippers and sits there, wondering if he could ever do anything right. He then sighs and rubs his eyes again before pushing himself back to his work.

"And that's the last one." He mumbles as he finally finishes all of his papers. he wonders if they are any good, or if he had screwed up at his work too, just like how he screws up at home. Bob manages to swallow back the urge to cry and he gets up from his chair behind his desk and neatly piles all the papers. He then takes them out of his office, towards the assistant who is going to get every single paper there where it belonged. He then waddles to Gray's office, already dreading the following hours. He knew that this training wouldn't be pleasant and he was as sure as one possibly could be, that Risette would like to have another shot at yelling at him tonight... Besides that, he also knew that he wouldn't be able to spend time with his son_again..._ He knocks three quick times on the door.

Grace looks at the door curiously from her pile of paperwork. "Come in." She says as she stacks some sheets.

Bob waddles in with a really small and mostly faked smile. "Madame, I am all done with my work... In other words, ready for the training." He says with the feeling of dread growing in his gut.

Grace looks at Bob for a moment as she thinks quickly on what he had meant by 'ready for the training'. It then hits her and she nods and gets up. "Alright." She says and gets her clipboard. She flips the page up and looks at the notes she had made yesterday about his training and weaknesses. Grace nods again and sits the clipboard back down. "Let's go then." She says and goes to the door.

Bob follows Grace, feeling a stone drop in his stomach. He really dislikes those combat trainings and this one especially since he knows that every failure would mean that he can spend less time with his family. He sighs a really little bit.

Grace opens the physical training room's door and waddles inside. She gets the mat and drags it out into the middle of the floor and gets a metronome off of a shelf and sets it near the mat. She thinks that today she'll work with Bob on keeping a steady pace in fighting.

Bob looks at the metronome with slightly raised non-existent eyebrows. "I am so not going to dance, madame." He says as he folds his flippers stubbornly. He was most definitely not in the mood for any of this nonsense and if it was for him, he would rather waddle right out of that door again.

"Ha, you would if I ordered you to." Grace says with a small snort. "But, that's not what you're going to do." She says and looks at Bob. She flips on the metronome and it starts ticking steadily. "We are going to work with keeping a steady pace with your fighting and this metronome will help with that." She stands back up from off the floor and gets onto the mat.

"No, I wouldn't. I would resign at the very moment." Bob mumbles silently to himself and then gets on the mat opposite Grace. He swallows a bit nervously as he gets in the fighting stance, but he tries his best not to show it.

Grace gets into her stance, also. "Alright. Now attack me." She says and looks at him.

Bob nods and attacks Grace in a really fast pace, but Grace simply side-steps Bob. He turns around to face Grace again and attacks her really quickly. Now he uses some flips, but they are unsteady because of his speed.

"Slow yourself down. Speed is not as important as accuracy." Grace says as she really easily defends herself.

Bob nods and tries to come in a little slower this time. "Well, is this snail-pace better, madame?" He asks her with some faked politeless as he tries to tackle her to the ground. His mood just went below the freezing point of water.

"Even slower, smarty-feathers." Grace says as she easily dodges him again. "It's all about accuracy. Speed comes after that."

Bob stops for a moment to look at Grace, with a somewhat disbelieving look on his face. "I'm so not attacking you in a slower pace, _madame_." He says. "My skipper always told me how speed saves our lives and I agree with him completely. This pace is just insane!"

Grace looks unamusedly at Bob and crosses her flippers. "But, if you miss your target in your haste to be fast, then what was the point to fight at all?" She asks. "Yes, speed can be important, but you won't come anywhere without _hitting _someone. Bullseyes are better, if you get what I mean." She looks at Bob sternly. "So, allow me to rephrase what I had asked you. I _order _you to attack me slower." She growls a little at Bob and gets back into her fighting stance. "_Or _if you aren't going to follow my orders to help you learn how to not fight like a stubborn little _chick_, you can go ahead and waddle yourself out the door now."_  
_

"Of course, _madame_." Bob says with the mock sounding through in his voice. He didn't like it to be called a 'little chick' and was about to return a sneering comment, but instead he gets in the fighting stance and attacks Grace with almost no speed at all. He misses because the lack of speed gets him awfully unbalanced and he looks straight at Grace. "Well, GLC Gray. Was this _better_?" He asks with lots of displeasure sounding through.

Grace frowns at Bob and rolls his eyes. "Maybe we should actually work on your balance first." She mutters. She waddles over to a balance beam. "Get on this." She orders.

"What does she actually think I am? A flipping gymnast?" Bob mumbles unamused and then waddles a bit slowly to the balance beam. He gets on it and looks at Grace with slightly raised non-existent eyebrows.

Grace looks at Bob. "Do some waddling or something up there. Maybe flips, if you think you can do those without injuring yourself." She says crossing her flippers again and looking sternly at him.

Bob sighs a little and rolls his eyes before performing a couple of pretty impressive flips on the beam without losing his balance once. He had learned to work the beam and keep himself balanced quite well in the shooting practice he had as a little chick. Though, he needs a lot of speed to get through it. He flips from the balance beam and looks at Grace with slightly raised non-existent eyebrows. "Hey, look! Not injured!"

Grace looks at Bob thoughtfully and then turns away. "That's enough training for today..." She says as she tries to figure Bob out. "He falls flat on his face while going too fast in flipper-to-flipper combat... But stick him on a balance beam and he works it like a gymnast... Hmmm..." She mumbles to herself thoughtfully.

"Great..." Bob mumbles as he waddles a bit slowly to the door. He glances at the clock and sees how it is already past dinner time and the bedtime of his son. He bites his tongue a little before turning back around and looking at Grace. "Actually, madame. I would like to try it one more time." He says, really not wanting to go to an angry Risette.

Grace turns and looks a bit weirdly at Bob. Most penguins were running out the door as soon as she told them that training was over for the day. "Euhm... Of course." She says and waddles over to the mat and gets into her fighting stance. Grace thinks that she surely doesn't have this LG Bob figured completely out yet.

Bob nods and gets in his fighting stance on the mat too. He tries attacking Grace now slower, but not as slow as before. He tries to focus on tackling her on the right way instead of tackling her as quick as possible.

Grace defends herself, still very easily though, from Bob's tackle. "Better." She says with a nod. Bob nods too and tries it again, even more accurate and still with a decent fast pace. Grace still defends herself, though she has to try a little harder this time. "Even better." She says with another nod. Bob nods again and then apparently comes for another tackle, but quickly flips over Grace and instead tackles her quickly and quite accurate from behind. Grace gets tackled down and lands on the mat. "Oof!" She had let her guard down from seeing how Bob hadn't been fighting so well before. She silently reprimands herself for letting her guard down and letting him tackle her like this... Though...If she was honest, she couldn't say that it bothered her that much.

Bob smiles somewhat at Grace as he extends his flipper to help her from the ground. "We're finally getting into it!" Bob mutters to himself.

Grace gets Bob's flipper and gets up from off the floor. She dusts herself off a little with a nod to Bob. "That's much, much better." She says.

"Thank you, madame." Bob says and he gives her a smile. He wonders whether she would like to do some more training or not.

Grace looks at him. "You may go now if you want." She says with another nod. "As I'm sure your wife would like you to return home to her eventually." She says as she folds up the mat and makes a small face about it while her back is turned to him.

"Yeah... I bet she _likes_ that..." Bob says silently and in a monotone voice as he waddles slowly and dreadfully to the door. "Goodnight, madame." He says a bit flatly and waddles out.

Grace hears his tone and looks a bit curiously at him. "Goodnight, Bob." She says with a nod as she thinks that isn't a tone most happy husbands seem to have when mentioning their wives. 'Hmmm...' She thinks silently.

Bob waves a little at Grace as he waddles out of the door and then gets out his phone. He listens to the messenger and sighs. "You have eight new messages. Press one to-" Bob ends it instead and gets the phone away. He doesn't even look at all the texts. "Fun... It's all in good fun." He mumbles silently.

* * *

Grace watches Bob leave before turning back to the training room and cleaning it. She knows that it is typically the job of the janitor, but since she's in here she figures she could do it anyway. Besides that, she was the only one using the room that often and she is probably the one that has made it such a mess in the first place. Once she finished tidying up the training room she waddles back out of it to her office. She remembers that she still has a little paperwork to get done before she will possibly think about leaving to go home.

She sits at her desk and finishes all her paperwork relatively quickly. She looks around her desk and notices that she has a stack of work to check that Bob has done and grabs it. She looks through the papers and frowns a little. "This is all wrong!" She mutters with a sigh as she corrects the papers. "I'll have to tell him about it tomorrow..."

After she finishes looking through the work, Grace grabs her case and scarf and heads out of the base. She drives her red car very quickly home and completely ignores the speed-limit signs on the way to her house. When she gets to her house, she parks and gets out of her car and waddles into her home.

She gently sits her case down near her couch and drapes her scarf on the hook near the door. She then gets her tape-recorder from her case again and takes it up to her bedroom with her.

She lays down on her bed with the electronic log-keeper. "Grace's log." She starts. "Well, today was mostly just normal. I had my first training session with GLC Bob. He started out horribly and kept talking back... Which I have to say is kinda cute... And aggravating at the same time. He eventually surprised me and tackled me from behind. I have to say that besides my irritation that I had let my own guard down, I didn't really mind being tackled by him that much." Grace says and then thinks for a moment. "I noticed tonight that his paperwork has been done all wrong. I'll have to fuss at him about that tomorrow... Or today, seeing as how it's after 24:00. Over and out." She sits the log aside on her bed-side table and lays down.

She stares a bit at her alarm clock and ponders about Bob's fighting ability. "It just makes no sense... He has no balance when he fights fast flipper-to-flipper... But stick him on a balance beam and he flips around like a gymnast..." She mumbles. "Maybe it's just concentration issues? Like he's thinking too hard on being fast and not enough on hitting his target?" She taps her beak a bit in thought. "How does one train concentration? Hmmm..." Grace then yawns and looks at her clock again. "Oh well... I guess I can figure that out tomorrow..."

* * *

"Honey... I'm home..." Bob kind of calls out when he opens the door of his house. He steps inside and closes and locks the door right behind him, only to turn around to see an angry Risette facing him. He silently clears his throat and tries a small smile at her.

Risette frowns more with her flippers crossed. "What took you so long?" She growls angrily at him.

"Work." Bob answers a bit shortly. "I did tell you that I would be late at home today too..." He kind of mutters under his breath.

"Yes, you said late. You didn't say you'd be back by the next day! It's past midnight, Bobo! Midnight! And do you know how upset little Edmond was when I had to tell him that his daddy wasn't going to tuck him in tonight?" Risette rants.

Bob looks at Risette. "Darling... I'm sorry." He says a bit silently. "But this was important... I don't want to lose this job almost the second after I got it..."

Risette snorts and turns away from Bob. "It's more important than your little Eddy and me?" She asks. She then starts crossly towards her and Bob's bedroom.

"No... Nothing will ever be more important to me than you and Eddy..." Bob mumbles silently as he remains standing in the hall with his flippers hanging lifeless next to his body.

Risette gets to the bedroom door before glancing back over her shoulder at Bob. "Well? Are you just going to stand there like a stupid plante* or are you coming to bed?" She asks rolling her eyes.

Bob looks away from Risette to the wall. "You... You can go ahead." He says silently and hurt. "I'll join you in a minute." Risette looks at Bob and rolls her eyes again. "Whatever." She mutters and goes into her and Bob's room. He then waddles silently to his living room and sits down his case. He takes a small tape-recorder out of it and looks softly at it.

"Bob's log... As I told you earlier, I have gotten a promotion. I am the new Lieutenant General of the high-security Base Q. My new boss, GLC Gray, seems stern but fair. Further on, I've met the scientist of the base. Just like all she managed to forget to wire her invention and it blew. I've got a, for me, average scoring on my shooting range, 50 out of 50, to be exact... But fighting... It was a total drama again. And the paperwork is the hardest I've ever seen. I wonder if I did them any good... Probably not." Bob sighs a bit and looks around the room. "Risette has been angry at me again, I have been coming late home from work for two days in a row now... Actually, I haven't seen my son at all since yesterday... I had to stay at the base for a training from Gray. I managed to get her down in the end, though I think she was just letting her guard down and I surprised her with my flip. Well, log... Let's go try patching things up between me and Risette... Good night." Bob finishes taking his log and gets his head in his flippers and stares for a bit at the ground.

* * *

_Translations:_

_Plante : plant_


	6. No Vacations for Me, Please

**A.N.- Silverrider and I hope you enjoy the chapter! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 6: No Vacations for Me, Please**

Grace wakes up around an hour before her alarm clock will go off. She stretches and sits up, before reaching over and turning off her alarm and getting out of the bed. She waddles to her kitchen and starts her coffee maker making coffee while she fixes herself a quick bowl of cereal. The coffee maker beeps and Grace waddles over to it and gets her cup of coffee. She sits down at her table with it and her cereal and then eats her cereal as she lets her coffee cool some. She then drinks her coffee while she looks over her daily planner at what all she has to do today.

"Let's see..." She mumbles to herself as she drinks her coffee. "I have a meeting with Commander Marian...Training with GLC Bob after his shift..." Grace takes another sip of her coffee. "I guess I should make myself lunch today..." She mumbles, getting up and getting things out to make herself a sandwich. "Nothing fancy, just something to keep myself from starving..."

Grace makes her sandwich and puts it in a little bag to take to work. She then puts on her scarf, grabs her case, and waddles out her door to her car. She drives quickly to work, speeding along the road, ignoring the speed limits. She gets to work still an hour early for her shift. She gets out of her red sports car and waddles into the base and to her office.

She hangs her scarf on the hook by the door and sits down on her chair by her computer. She had glanced into Bob's office on her way to her own office, but hadn't seen him. Grace sighs a little as she turns on her computer. "Yep. Yesterday must have been a fluke." She says silently as she looks at the paperwork on her desk.

* * *

Bob silently stretches and yawns as he looks at his alarm clock once more. He sighs and slowly gets out of the bed, still an hour before his alarm clock would go off. He turns it off with a sigh and gets out of the bed with a tired and somewhat sore feeling in his body. "Hope you slept well, dear." He says silently as he kisses the still sleeping Risette on her cheek. He looks for a moment at her, thinking back on how she was when he just met her; funny, sweet, loving and he seemed to be her hero, no matter what he did. Now he was her villain, no matter what he did, how he did it, he has done it wrong.

Bob yawns again as he silently waddles to his son's bedroom and peeks in. A small smile appears on his face and he waddles quietly in. He silently leans against a wall and watches his son sleep for a moment, before tucking him softly in and waddling silently out again to turn on his coffee maker. He starts making pancakes as breakfast for Risette and Edmond, in hopes of making them more happy with him and have a nice morning... For himself, he makes a quick bowl of cereal. He yawns again and waits a bit impatiently for the coffee maker as he cooks.

Bob finishes his breakfast and cooking Risette and Edmond's pancakes just after his coffee maker beeps. He silently turns it off and takes a sip before taking it with him to the living room and starting to get his things together. He silently goes out of the house ten minutes later, and makes a way to his car. Because he was later than yesterday, he now gets into a traffic jam. He slams his flippers hard on the steering wheel. "Exactly what I needed." He mumbles to himself and starts sitting the traffic jam out.

"Move, come on, move!" Bob mutters agitated when he is an hour later still in the same traffic jam. He has no way to go around it and according to the radio it may take hours to clear up the remains of the accident that had happened on the road. He drums his flippers on the steering wheel and just waits.

"I think I may need to call the base..." Bob mumbles to himself, after another hour the traffic still has remained unchanged. He silently gets out a phone and dials the number he had gotten from Gray earlier, as he nervously waits in his car.

Grace looks curiously at her phone as it rings. She doesn't recognize the number, but answers it anyway. "GLC Grace K. Gray." She says as she answers.

"Ehm... Madame Gray, I've got a problem..." Bob says a bit hesitantly as he looks at the row of cars in front of him. "I am stuck in a traffic jam and I don't think I can make it on time to work..." He says and silently curses a little under his breath.

"Traffic jam?" Grace repeats with a raised nonexistent eyebrow. 'Yep...Yesterday was definitely a fluke I believe...' She thinks and rolls her eyes a little. "Alright, thanks for the warning." She says on the phone.

Bob nods. "Alright. I'll be there as soon as possible. Goodbye, madame Gray." He says and then hangs up. He can't believe that this is happening to him, it is just his luck. He looks at his phone for a moment before throwing it right out of the car window. "At least that will save me the explanation of why I didn't take my wife's calls." He mumbles as he gets his head in his flippers and tries to keep himself from crying.

"And today will be sunny with maybe a little fall of rain in the South-East of the country." Bob silently listens to the weather report when the traffic jam starts moving a little again. He starts his car and drives slowly with it.

* * *

Grace looks at her phone and the number. She saves that number in her phone for future recognition and then puts her phone away again. She then gets up to go tell Marian that LG Bob is going to be late due to traffic. 'I wonder if he _actually_ is in one, or if it is just another excuse like all the others make...' She silently thinks as she waddles over to Commander Marian Scott's office.

Commander Marian works happily on her work while having the radio in her office turned on. She always worked better while having it happy and cozy in her office. She hums a little with the melody and taps her flipper as she fills in all the blank spots on the forms without much trouble. She actually enjoys working like this much, as long as her bosses weren't irritating and giving her extra work, no employees were sick, no prisoners escaped and as long as there were no troubles with anything at all in general. All the responsibility for the base is on her shoulders and she would get all the blame for every little accident, every little misstep that was made in the base. But today nothing like that has happened yet, so Marian does enjoy her trouble-free normal morning.

GLC Gray waddles up to Marian's office and knocks. "Euhm, Commander Marian..." She says.

Marian looks up from her work and turns the volume from her radio a whole lot down. "Yes, General Gray?" She asks with a seemingly formal nod and a hidden friendly smile. "Come in, close the door and sit down, if you please." She says.

Grace waddles in and closes the door with a nod. She then sits down after a small salute. "LG Bob called and said that he is going to be late today." She says. "He said he is caught in a traffic jam..."

"Alright. Just let him make up his missing hours and let him fill in this form." Marian says with a small nod and she hands the form to Grace. "Any other problems you need help with?" She asks.

"Okay." Grace says and nods and takes the form. She then thinks for a moment. "I don't think so...You do remember we have a meeting planned for after lunch today, correct, ma'am?" She asks.

"Correct." Marian says with a nod as she gets out her daily planner and shows it to Grace. "See, I've got it right here." She points to the appointment. "But, please tell me, why you suddenly come to me about a tardy employee, Grace. I mean, you never seemed to have problems handling the others being late, which they awfully often are." Marian says with a laugh. "Is it because you rather have him here than with his family?" She asks with a joking laugh and wink.

Grace turns an interesting pink-red color from a blush. "Euhm...N-y-oooo..." She says, with a slightly unsure tone.

"So... Let me get this straight, you really do have a crush on that guy." Marian giggles a bit, before straightening her face out. "But no. It's not allowed to have this kind of affairs around _my base._" She says commander-like. "Go to a pub and find a guy there."

"I know, ma'am, and I am not thinking to start one." Grace says with a nod. "Maybe on my day off..." She says. 'Probably not, but maybe.' She thinks behind that.

"Good." Marian says with a nod. "And talking about your days off, you still need to take your vacation-days... One week if I remember correctly?" She says as she gets out Grace's file and looks into it.

"Vacation-days?" Grace says, faking like she doesn't know what Marian is talking about. "What vacation-days? I certainly have no time to take a vacation." She says.

Marian face-flippers before looking at Grace. "Grace..." She begins. "You know perfectly well what we're talking about and one of the reasons that new guy is here, is so that you'll have less work." She says sternly. "I want you to give me a date when you can go away for a week by our meeting.

Grace looks at Commander Marian and opens her beak for a moment to argue, but then remembers her place and shuts her beak again with a really small nod. "Yes, ma'am..." She says. She really doesn't want to have to think of a vacation week anyway. She hates having to spend a week in her silent house away from her nice paperwork. She hadn't wanted less work in the first place. So what if she is a workaholic? It isn't like it is killing her! Grace sighs a bit inwardly.

Marian nods as she looks into the file. "Why don't you go back to Tennessee?" She asks. "You seemed to have had lots of fun there the last time you went to that place." She also, while talking, fills in some of the blanks with the info out of the file. "Which was a couple of years ago." She then realizes and looks at Grace. "So, care to share what happened, Grace?" She asks falling a bit out of her commander-like composure to look friendly at Grace.

"Euhm..." Grace shifts a little in her seat. "Well...My sister and I had a big argument right before I left..." She says quietly. "And 'fun' depends on how you look at it, Marian..." She says. "If you consider running into your hated ex-boyfriend and your sister constantly whacking all your thoughts with a verbal hammer fun, then yes, I had lots of '_fun'_ there..." She says and gives a small sigh. "The only actual fun part was Lucy and her horses..."

"Alright." Marian says with a soft look and then searches some in her case next to her desk. "Here. I have already found my holiday destination. Back in the book are some nice ranches where you can also hire a horse." She says with a soft smile as she hands Grace a traveling guide. "And yes, you really need to go away for a week from the base. I'm sorry, but I can't change the rules... And you need a break, you know what happens when you overwork yourself." She says softly.

Grace takes the book with a small nod. "Yeah...I know..." She says silently. "Thanks, Marian..." She says with a small smile. 'Darn it! But I _DON'T WANT_ a vacation!' She thinks though. 'I'm _NOT_ overworked! I'm fine! Let me be a flipping workaholic, please!'

Marian nods with a small smile. "And don't worry about your work. I am sure the new guy and I will be alright for that little time being." She says with a wink. She knows perfectly well how much Grace hates taking time off of work.

Grace nods a little. "Maybe after I give him a better explanation on his paperwork..." She says. "He kind of did half of his wrong, I saw, yesterday after he had left..."

"Oh?" Marian says and she looks at Grace. "Did you give him the papers I gave you earlier on how to deal with the work?" She asks. "He should have been able to do the work correctly with the help of those."

Grace face-flippers. "Agh! I knew I forgot something!" She says with a slightly irritated sigh. "Those sheets must still be on my desk..."

Marian looks at Grace with somewhat raised non-existent eyebrows. "I guess you better still give it to him." She says and then gets her flipper through her own stack of work and gets some papers out. "And if anybody asks you what these papers are; they are forms you need to fill in because of that guard you hit into the hospital last week." She says with a wink as she gives Grace obviously a part of her own work.

"Of course." Grace says with a small smile as she takes the papers. Though she really doubts anyone will ask, no one really ever did. The guards typically didn't care or were too busy trying to look like they were doing their jobs when Grace waddles near them. "I suppose I should get back to work now, ma'am." She says standing up with a nod and with the papers and book.

Marian nods and gets a part of her own mountain of paperwork and a pen. "Please, GLC Gray." She says.

Grace nods and then waddles out of the office and closes the door softly behind her. She takes the work and the book to her own office and sets it down on her desk before she starts searching her desk for those papers she had meant to give Bob. "Ah hah! There those rascals are..." She mumbles and gets the sheets.

Bob finally parks his car in front of the base and then rubs his eyes again. He looks at the clock in his car and sees how he is already 2 hours late in his shift and sighs. He knew that the rules would be that he had to make up these hours after his shift ended, and that he probably will need to get back to his work after the training he would get by GLC Gray. "I'm doomed." He mutters silently as he gets his case and waddles a bit slowly and with his head bent to the base.

Grace sets the pesky sheets aside to give to Bob when he is in his office. She then sits back down at her desk and takes out the vacation book so that she can at least say she has glanced through it. "Though I really can't see why I really have to go on a vacation...I mean, I'm nowhere near a burn-out. I like work...I don't want to be without it for an ENTIRE WEEK!" She mumbles to herself with a sigh.

Bob silently waddles up to Grace's office and knocks three times on her door. He looks down, still thinking about how he now hadn't seen his son almost at all in two days, and how he would add today to that last too. He thinks he must be one of the worst dads and husbands to have ever waddled the earth.

Grace hears the door and looks at it. "Come in." She orders and picks up those sheets that she had meant to give LG Bob earlier.

Bob nods and waddles head bent into the office, before straightening himself out and standing up and saluting Grace.

Grace nods to Bob. "At ease, LG Bob." She says.

Bob nods and lets his flipper down a bit slowly and looks at the ground. He knows he couldn't help getting stuck in that traffic jam, but he still feels guilty about it. He still tries to stand up as straight as possible, even though he totally doesn't feel like it.

GLC Gray looks at Bob. 'Well...Maybe he _was_ in a traffic-jam...' She thinks silently. "As the normal protocol, you will need to make up those two hours after your shift." She says. "And speaking of your shift...I discovered I accidently didn't give you this packet on how to do your paperwork." She says and gives Bob the papers. "Now you can go back and correct your work."

Bob nods as he gets the papers. "Of course, madame." He says. "And the training we planned is just going to be at the end of my normal shift, madame?" He asks.

"Umm..." Grace thinks for a moment. "Or we could do the training after your shift plus the two hours..." She says, thinking that will make her stay longer here at work, also.

"But if we do it then, you have to wait three hours for me and not one, madame. Not that it is any of my business, of course." Bob says with a small polite nod.

Grace nods. "I know." She says. "And I'm perfectly fine with that." She says with a small shrug. 'Not like I enjoy going home anyway...And I'm also wanting to avoid planning a vacation...' She thinks.

"Alright then, madame." Bob says with a nod and he salutes Grace before going out of her office and waddling to his own. "Great... Risette is going to be over the moon when I come home after midnight _again_..." He mumbles silently as he opens his door and turns on the computer. He takes his earlier done work and sees that he has almost done everything incorrectly when he lays it next to the papers. "Or maybe I won't be coming home tonight at all... Seeing how much I have to finish today with yesterday's too..." He mumbles silently to himself as he gets his pen and starts working.

Bob works for hours on correcting his work and then, when he looks at the clock on the opposite wall of his desk, he sighs a bit and rubs his eyes with his flippers. He has already worked past lunch-time and he isn't even finished with the corrections of his work from the day before. He silently sits back in his chair and then, glancing a bit nervously around, he gets out two small horse shaped toys; a pink and a purple one. He silently starts playing with the toys as he takes his break time in his office.

Bob plays accidentally longer than he has intended to and when he looks at the clock again, he is a bit shocked of how late it already is. He gets his little Lunacorns away and picks up his pen, papers and instructions for another round of work. He sighs a bit inwardly and tries to ignore the feeling that he might not even see his house before 3 in the morning.

"Ehm..." Bob mumbles a little silently to himself when he looks through a couple of slightly harder papers. "How am I going to finish you guys." He says as he uses his reference papers, too. He looks at the clock again and then bites his tongue and just fills something in at the blanks.

* * *

Grace watches Bob leave and then looks back at the vacation book again and picks it up. "Mmhm...Don't want to go there...Nor there...Nope..._Never_ again...Made too many enemies with locals there...Never...No, thank you...Ehm, maybe..." She mumbles as she flips through the book. "I wonder if Marian would be too mad if I said I'd like to wait and take my vacation next year...Maybe she would have forgotten about me needing to take one by then and I wouldn't have to!" She says silently to herself before shaking her head. "No...Marian would know I would try something like that..." She sighs and closes the book. "Maybe I should just go back to Tennessee...Who ever said that a vacation must be enjoyable to be a vacation?" She mumbles.

She then sighs again and lays the book on her desk before wiping a flipper over her face. Grace looks at her stack of work with a small smile. "I least I can enjoy my work currently." She says with a small smile and picks up the first pages of the commander work that Marian had given her. She enjoys doing the harder work, it causes her to think a little more and relax just a little. "Still think I'd be perfectly fine without a stupid, stressful vacation..." She mumbles as she fills out the sheet.

Grace finishes the commander work and starts on her normal work with a steady pace. She looks up at her clock and lays the pen and work aside and picks up the vacation manual again and her lunch. Grace starts on her sandwich and flips through the book with a sigh.

She quickly finishes her lunch and then gets up with the vacation book and her planner. Grace waddles out from her office to Marian's again to attend their meeting.

Marian works happily with her stereo on a rather loud setting. She sings some happily with the songs that are coming up as she works quickly and accurately through her work.

Grace waddles up to Marian's office and looks curiously at it as she hears the loud music. "Well...Sounds like Marian's found some new bands recently to add to her favorites..." She mumbles to herself with a small laugh. She then knocks on the office door.

"Come in!" Marian calls happily to the door as she turns off the stereo. She lays down her pen and sets her papers neatly aside and then waits with a smile for Grace to come in.

Grace nods and enters the room and gives a salute to Marian.

"At ease, Gray." Marian says with a nod and she points to a chair at her desk. "Please sit down." She says with another nod and a smile. "Did you look into the book I gave you?" She asks.

"Yes, ma'am." Grace says with a nod and sits down in the chair.

"And, did you see something that you like?" Marian asks with a smile as she turns on the coffeemaker next to her desk. She already knows what kind of coffee Grace would like.

Grace shakes her head. "Nope." She says. 'Wasn't really expecting to find one I liked either...' She thinks behind it.

Marian sighs a bit. "Well, maybe you need to call that friend of yours, Lucy? And ask her if you maybe can go together to a place?" She suggests. "Because you are _not_ going to report back to base after not even six hours like last time. I will set up that new guy to keep you out of here if I have to." She says.

"Six hours, forty-seven minutes..." Grace mutters silently. "And I know Lucy is really busy around this time of year, with horse competitions and things like that." She says.

"So why don't you go with her? I know you like horses yourself." Marian says with a kind smile. "Or why don't you buy a horse? I'm sure you can afford one with the salary you're having." She says with a laugh. "So that's no excuse anymore. Then you can have some fun with the horse and maybe meet a nice guy at a stable or something." Marian says with a laugh.

"Lucy is going with her boyfriend, Ricky. I'd just be a third-wheel on that." Grace says. "And where the kipper would I have the place for a horse?" Grace asks. "I don't think it would fit well in my house." She says with a small laugh.

"Just put the animal at a riding school or something. Then you would have a chance of meeting other people, too, and maybe relax some for once." Marian says. "Just admit it, Grace. You were never going out when we still had that good old HQ, you just sat there drinking coffee and muttering why that guy had to cheat on you. Do you ever just forget and move on? Find something fun to do instead of sitting at work all day?"

Grace shifts a bit in her seat. "Euhm...But work _is_ fun and relaxing to me, Marian..." She says.

Marian just looks at Grace and sets her cup of coffee on the table. "Sure it is..." She mumbles a bit, getting a bit impatient by Grace's stubbornness. "Anyway, I need you for another mission... An old-styled one." She says with a wink and gets out a folder. "It's about a guy working for us a while now...Called Dave Thompson." Marian says with a smile. "I heard he likes 'candy'." She says with another wink and a laugh.

Grace takes a sip of her coffee and looks curiously and interested at Marian. "You don't say..." She says. "Where's he going to be at? And his picture?" She asks.

"You'll be meeting him at that expensive restaurant a couple of miles away from here." Marian says with a smile and holds up a picture from a not all too beautiful young penguin.

Grace looks at the picture. "Did a herd of cows run by and lick him right before this picture was taken?" She asks with a laugh.

"Sadly enough, no." Marian says with a laugh. "And his mood and character aren't to be described as the nicest either, but I think you'll find a way around that." She laughs.

"Yup, I probably will." Grace nods with a small laugh. "So, what kind of 'candy' is he in to?" She asks.

"He likes short red dresses. Expensive taste. He likes women with black feathers. Much in the front, enough in the back." Marian says with a laugh.

Grace nods with a laugh. "Gotcha. And when am I to meet this 'Dave'?" She asks.

"Maybe in 2 weeks?" Marian says looking at a couple of papers. "Yeah, between now and 2 weeks. I hope you can get yourself ready in time." She says and gets the papers in the file also. "In that file are all the basics you need to know. Weaknesses, weapons, et cetera."

"Alright." Grace says with a nod and gets the file from Marian. "And two weeks is plenty of time to get prepared." She says.

Marian nods. "And have we recently talked about a pay rise?" She asks as she gets out more papers.

Grace nods a little. "Yes, ma'am." She says.

"And have you been able to think some on it?" Marian nods a little as she straightens the papers out.

Grace nods a little again. "Yes, I think the raise wouldn't be too bad, though I don't really need it..." She says honestly.

"Okay." Marian says with a nod and fills in the forms and then goes over to the photocopier. She makes a couple of copies of the forms and papers and then hands Grace the papers. Grace gets the papers from Marian and looks them over.

Marian takes a sip from her coffee and looks at Grace. She then gets out another couple of papers and a pen. "If you can scribble there." She says with a smile and hands Grace the pen and shows the blank.

"Okay." Grace says with a nod and signs on the spot Marian points to. Marian nods and gets the papers on the place they are supposed to go. Grace nods some and watches Marian. "Just curious...But how are you and that Commander Eric going?" She asks curiously with a wink.

Marian laughs a bit. "At the moment? We haven't been keeping up much." She says honestly. "We have a date every so often when he has time... But we have enough contact via other ways." Marian laughs a bit happily.

Grace nods understandingly with a small laugh also. "That's good." She says.

"Yup." Marian nods with a smile. "So, do you have any other questions?" She asks with a happy smile.

"Mmm..." Grace thinks for a moment. "I don't think so..." She says.

"Alright." Marian says with a nod. "Then you are allowed to leave." She smiles at Grace. "And make sure you find a nice destination for your trip. Why don't you try to ask some penguins about where they went last time or are going to? You might get a nice idea." Marian smiles.

Grace nods with a small smile. "Alright. Have a nice afternoon, Marian." She says and gets up.

"Same to you, Grace." Marian says with a nod and a smile. "Don't forget to close the door!" She says as she turns her stereo back on and gets more papers on her desk.

Grace waddles out and shuts the door softly behind her. She then waddles back to her office.


	7. Cookie Time

**A.N.- And here is chapter 7! We hope you all enjoy! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Cookie Time**

Grace waddles back to her office and enters it. She sits down in her chair at her desk and opens the file that Commander Marian had handed her during the meeting. She gets out a little notebook and her favorite pen and starts jotting down important information from the file.

"Let's see..." She mumbles. "So, we'll talk about that...I'll need to make sure I wear that red dress for sure..." Grace looks at the ceiling of her office and taps her beak for a moment with her pen. "I guess I should also tell that LG Bob that we won't have after work training on that day, too..." She says thoughtfully.

Grace glances at her door. "I'm sure that I can wait to tell him that little bit of information when we are at training..." She mutters and goes back to her paperwork. She works diligently on it and rather happily, too. She tries to keep her thoughts away from depressing things like vacations or how Bob is married already.

She finally finishes her work and still has some time to wait until Bob's extended shift will be over. She sighs and gets up from her desk. She figures she can do some training herself while she waits for Bob. Grace quietly opens her door and steps out it and closes it quietly back. She waddles past Bob's office a bit slower than her usual pace and glances inside before speeding back up to her usual pace and going to the training room.

* * *

Bob just works through the hours of his normal shift before looking at the clock and sighing. He knows his lonely phone at the side of the highway is probably ringing and beeping with all the messages of his wife, if it hadn't broken in the fall. He suddenly feels guilty and puts his head in his flippers. He sits there for a couple of minutes before deciding that continuing on his work might be the best thing to do. He picks his pen up again.

After some time, Bob has finished most of his work and he lays down his pen with a sigh. He rubs his eyes for a moment before getting up and pacing around in his office. He knows he has to stay in his office for at least another hour, but he just didn't feel like working on his confusing papers. He gets out a little planner than and goes some through it, looking at the dates he had marked when he got the leather-binded book. He silently counts the days and then closes the planner back and lays it in a drawer. He gets out his pen again and works.

Bob bites the end of the pen a little as he wishes that he could just throw all of the papers out of his office window and go home... Or rather to the pub with his best friend Pedro. He lets out an agitated sigh as he gets his reference papers out once more and uses them as he fills in the last blank. "Finally." He mutters as he neatly stacks his papers and straightens the stuff in his office some. He really never could stand anything getting untidy. He gets up with a glance to his clock and waddles out of his office to the trainings room.

Grace, in the training room, does some basic stretches and excersises to get warmed up. She then drags out her favorite punching bag and attacks it, letting all of her stress of the day out upon it. She glances every so often at the clock to keep up with the time and how long until Bob will be coming for his training. "Stupid vacation time..." She murmurs. "Why not give it to someone who actually wants it?!" She growls to herself quietly as she beats up the bag. "I don't _need_ it...I don't even _want_ it..." She aims a high kick at the bag.

Bob waddles in and leans against the wall to look at Grace and the punching bag. "It's probably because of the fact that employees with a burnout cost the base more than a couple vacation days." He says with a shrug. "Since when you go down the burnout-road, there is not really a way back up." He shrugs again.

Grace glares very coldly at Bob. "I know that." She growls. "I also know I'd be more likely to get a flipping burnout from a vacation than work." She gives the punching bag a very vicious shove and then starts moving it back to its place. '3,2,1,1,2,3. What the kipper is bothering me? 3,2,1,1,2,3. Too many things to list currently...' She thinks to try to get calmed down to keep from injuring Bob.

Bob looks some at Grace. "Wow... Someone sure is cross with vacations..." He mumbles. "Maybe you are spending your vacation then not the way it should be, madame..." He says as he kind of dashes behind Grace. "I mean, you surely have some friends to relax with? Isn't that a nice relaxing thing to do?" He asks innocently.

Grace clinches her flippers at her sides. 'Come on, Gracey, let's try not to put the newbie in the hospital...' She thinks as she looks angrily back at Bob. "The only friend I have besides the commander will be out of town with her boyfriend." She growls. "My sister..." She growls more. "Actually, no. I'm not talking about this." She gives an aggravated sigh. "Just get on the flipping mat and zip your beak. I'm trying not to put anymore employees in the hospital this month."

Bob looks at Grace, kind of ignoring her last remark. "Why not try the pub to make a new friend?" He asks curiously. "There are a lots of nice girls at the pub not too far from base." He says with a small laugh. "And... May I be so bold to ask what is wrong with your sister, madame?" He asks politely as he waddles to the mat.

Grace takes a deep breath and looks at Bob. "Pub girls are not my type of friends." She growls. "My sister, Darla..." She looks at Bob for a moment to judge whether she actually is going to tell him this or not. "She hates me and does nothing but try to ruin my life." She sighs. "And she mostly succeeds at it, too..." She says silently, barely audible.

"Pub girls aren't your type?" Bob asks curiously. "But there is not just _one_ type of pub girl..." He says. "Also, I met my wife in a pub." He says with a shrug. "And that's too bad of your sister..." He says a bit softly. He likes this talking so much better than training.

"I've been at the pub enough to have met most of the types." Grace says. "Most irritate the kipper out of me." She gets into a fighting stance. "And the thing with Darla, I guess she gives me all the reasons I should just go jump off a bridge. But, as you see, I've yet to go for that option." She says.

Bob immediately pales up by really much. "J-jump off a bridge?" He repeats with an obvious shiver in his voice and very wide eyes.

Grace looks at him. "Not that I would." She says. "I have too much work."

Bob narrows his eyes some and looks at her for a moment. "But you still think about it, don't you, madame?" He thinks some more about her last remark. "Too much _work_... Work... Is that her _reason_ to be here?" He mumbles silently.

Grace's temper boils over. "That is none of your buisness!" She shouts. "Now either you can shut your beak and train, or you may go out those _nice_ little doors _now_!" She shouts, clenching her flippers by her sides.

"Yes, madame." Bob says with a very small salute. He waddles over to the mat. "So that means that she does?" He mumbles, but not so quiet that Grace can't hear him.

Grace shoots him a glare. "I _never_ said _that._" She shouts. "Now get into position!"

Bob rolls his eyes a bit and gets into position without another word. This time, Grace comes at Bob to starts the fighting. Bob defends himself from Grace's attack and manages to keep up his guard quite well. He doesn't attack back yet, though. GLC Gray keeps her attacks steady and well aimed. She starts to calm down from her anger earlier.

Bob looks at the clock and then jumps from the mat. "Hold on." He says. "Cookie time." He takes out a cookie and starts eating it. He actually uses it as an 'excuse' to drop out of the fight, since he had started to have some trouble keeping up with GLC Gray's attacks. He eats the cookie.

Grace looks at Bob really weirdly. "Cookie time...?" She repeats and looks at him. "I don't remember saying it was time for a break..."

Bob shrugs as he eats his cookie. "You didn't have to, I know perfectly well it is now cookie time on my own." He says. Grace just stares at Bob strangely and blinks.

"Cookie?" Bob offers Grace a cookie as he starts on his second one.

Grace still just looks at him. "Ehm...Suuuuurrree..." She says weirdly.

"What kind of cookie would you like?" Bob asks with a smile as he gets out a few boxes with different cookies.

GLC Gray looks at the cookie boxes a bit wide eyed. "Euhm...Maybe...Erhg...Never mind..." She says silently, shaking her head some. 'Grace, you idiot. They're just cookies, and he's cute, and you seriously _still_ can't choose?' She thinks, aggravated to herself.

Bob looks curiously at Grace. "Why not try a coconut Macaroon?" He suggest. "Those are from a bakery in France, and they are delicious. That man surely is a miracle worker with cookies." Bob says with a nod.

"Euhm...Sure..." Grace says a bit hesitantly. 'Oh, kipper, no doubt he can tell about my deciding problem now...Fantastic job, Grace.' She thinks.

Bob smiles at Grace and hands her the cookie. He himself gets another cookie also.

Grace gets the cookie from Bob. She tries it and nods some. "This is a good cookie..." She says.

Bob nods. "I know." He says, eating the other cookie.

Marian waddles a round through her base, whistling some on her favorite song of that new band she found. She then enters the training room to check. "GLC Gray and LG Garrison... What is this about?" She asks sternly yet curiously.

Grace looks at Marian surprised. "Erm...Just a short break, ma'am." She says. "And now we are getting right back to training. Back to the mat, LG Garrison." She orders. 'So _that's_ his last name...'

Bob looks from Grace to Marian. "But... But don't you want a cookie, madame?" He asks Marian, holding out the boxes to her.

Marian looks at them and shrugs with a laugh. "Of course, LG Garrison, I'll take a cookie." She says and takes one. Bob takes another cookie too.

Grace goes over to the mat. She's embarrassed to have been caught snacking during training time, especially when she rarely gives any of the other employees breaks.

Bob and Marian eat their cookies quickly. "Well, LG Garrison, I think GLC Gray is waiting for you to continue the training." She says with a laugh and a nod to Grace and the mat. Bob nods some. "Alright, madame." He says and gets his cookies away and waddles back to the mat. Marian leans against the wall, watching them for a little bit before leaving again to continue her base checks before she leaves to go home.

Grace takes a silent deep breath to push aside all of her embarrassed or angry thoughs as she gets herself back into fighting position. 'Next training...No cookie time...' She thinks silently. 'I shouldn't show favoritism among employees...Not that anyone would get jealous, they'd just give him a hard time about it...' She gives her head a small, practically unnoticeable shake to clear these thoughts, too. 'Focus, Gray! Focus!' She reprimands herself.

Bob gets in fighting stance and attacks Grace quickly, though with a nearly nonexistent accuracy. He is quite unbalanced also. Grace really easily defends herself and knocks Bob over, seeing how unbalanced he is. Bob takes a deep breath as he is on the ground and then immediately recovers himself and comes again at Grace, even quicker and more unbalanced.

"Remind me, Garrison, what I said at last training." Grace says as she still really easy defends herself and knocks him to the mat once more. "Did I not say that accuracy right now is more important than speed?" She looks at him on the mat.

"Uh, I guess?" Bob shrugs a bit and picks himself up from the mat again. He glances one short time at the clock and sighs just a little. 'Maybe I should stay in my office tonight?' He thinks silently as he dusts himself off.

Grace nods some and also glances at the clock. "One more go and then we'll conclude today's training." She says.

Bob glances at the clock and shrugs. "I don't mind training longer than that." He says, thinking that would give him a legitimate reason to come home later, which improved his chance of Risette already being in bed and asleep. "I have all the time..."

Grace looks at Bob really strangely. 'Okay...This guy literally makes no sense...He was just stalling to try not to train and now he wants to train more? I thought he was marri—maybe his wife and he are having issues?' She thinks silently as she looks at Bob. "Ehm, alright, Garrison, then we can do a few more rounds..." She says. She thinks she is glad that she decided to eat lunch today since it seems that it will be quite late when she goes home.

"Eh, madame Gray?" Bob says just a bit more quietly. "Would it be too much to ask you to call me just 'Bob'? I prefer that over just my nom de famille*." He says.

"Euhm, sure..." Grace shrugs and gives him a slightly curious look.

"Thank you." Bob says with a small nod. Being calledjust just his last name had always made him feel a bit nervous. There were just some memories he got reminded of every time he heard his name being called in the way Grace did. He smiles a little at Grace before getting into his fighting stance once again.

Grace nods. "No problem." She says and gets back into her own fighting stance. "This time I want you to slow your attack and focus mainly on keeping your balance." She says.

Bob nods and opens with a very slow, but balanced attack. He is tempted to fake a yawn as he does so, thinking this is all rather boring.

Grace nods some at this attack. "Good, good." She says. "Now try doing the same but a little faster, and get your flippers a tad more inside your body."

Bob nods and attacks Grace a whole lot faster, but his flippers are completely in the right place now. His balance though, is a bit more off. He thinks this is a lot more fun than that slow stuff.

"Slow yourself down, Bob, you're throwing yourself off balance again." Grace says with a very unamused frown.

Bob shrugs. "But this is just way more fun!" He says as he comes again in the same manner at Grace.

"Be as that may, training is not for fun." Grace says. "It's for learning how to keep yourself the flipping kipper alive out on a mission. If you want fun, go play at a kiddy-park." She says.

"Says you." Bob mumbles a bit quietly, knowing that he probably shouldn't say what he wants to out loud. "But I think of most trainings, if not all but flipper-to-flipper fighting, that they're fun. Just, this. This is so ridicule*." He says, forgetting quite to be silent. He then looks at Grace with slightly wide eyes, realizing that he has said this outloud. 'Well, kipper.' He thinks.

Grace looks at Bob with raised nonexistent eyebrows and then gives a really small laugh. "I know, and do agree with you, Bob. But, like in school, you've got to do the boring stuff before you can do the fun stuff." She says with a small shrug.

"What boring stuff?" Bob asks confused as he looks at Grace. He had never found school quite that boring, but always interesting and full of opportunities. Even learning the basics he has thought of as fun, mostly because he was an easy learner.

"Uh...Like review and studying? I don't know." Grace shrugs. She had thought school was neither super interesting, nor really boring. Though, come high-school she had found it really stressful after having to start working after school in the afternoons and nights as a waitress.

"Eh, is that supposed to be boring?" Bob says a bit confused before shrugging a bit too. He had never been forced to work as long as he had been at school, so he had used his nights mainly for studying, hanging out with his friends in a local pub or doing one of his hobbies.

Grace shrugs again. "I thought it was...That and stressful..." She murmurs. She thinks of how she never had any time to study after school because all of her free time was taken and used for working extra to just get enough cash for her sister and her to survive on.

"Oh, okay..." Bob says with a nod. "I thought it was always nice, except those mean kids who laughed and kicked you or that cookies were not allowed in class." He shrugs.

Grace looks at Bob for a moment and then shrugs a bit. "I had to work two jobs, so I never had time for school, really." She says. "Which was probably my only problem with it...Well, that and the fights I got in..."

Bob nods some and then gets in his stance again. "But do I have to come at you in such a boring pace?" He asks again.

"Yes, Bob." Grace says and nods. "Until you can keep your balance and fight fast smoothly, that is."

"Awh..." Bob mutters silently and he then starts attack Grace in a, to him, retired penguin's pace.

Grace looks unamusedly at him. "Alright, LG Smarty-Feathers. I said slow, I did not say _ancient penguin_ slow." She says. "Speed up to as fast as you can fight without becoming unbalanced." She instructs.

Bob rolls his eyes a bit. "Fine..." He says and tries to attack Grace in a quick, but still rather balanced pace.

Grace goes really easily on Bob as she assesses his fighting and balance. "Now I'd like for you to try going faster now, but put most of your focus on staying balance than being fast." She says with a small nod.

"Of course, madame." Bob says with a nod as he tries to go faster in his fighting and to also keep his balance. He keeps his balance quite nicely now, but misses Grace almost completely.

Grace smiles a bit. "That's alright, we can work on aim next training." She says. "Balance is part of the basics, though." She says.

Bob nods, feeling a bit discouraged. He knew balance was the basics and was glad to be fighting faster, but it was disappointing to him how he was doing almost everything wrong.

GLC Gray sees Bob's disappointed look. "Don't worry, I've trained much worse fighters." She says. "You're actually doing better already than most do."

"Okay..." Bob says just a bit silently and gets out a cookie and nibbles some on it. He is just a bit hungry since he now missed dinner.

"Yeah." She says and looks at the clock. "Well, I guess training can be over for the night." She says and shrugs. "As I'm sure you'd like to sleep some before your shift tomorrow."

'Yeah... Sleeping next to my lovely wife... Guess I'm going to 'like' that, yes.' Bob thinks silently with a nod. "Good night, madame." He says still a bit silently as he waddles with his head slightly bend to the door. Besides that he is really tired because it is now passed one in the morning, he also dreads going home.

"Good evening, Bob." Grace says and watches him go for a moment. She then sighs a bit and rolls up the training mat. She wonders if she really should even go home. She bets she could just curl up in her chair in her office and stay the night. Grace feels that she could probably deal with Marian's tirade about it, if she did, tomorrow alright.

* * *

Bob silently drives home in his black car as he sighs. He wonders when and how he is going to get a new phone and if it is really necessary that he gets one. He also feels a bit stressed from today. He turns on the car radio and listens to some quiet classical music as he drives home through the almost empty streets.

He parks shortly after he has left at his house and waddles in silently. Most of the lights of his house were already turned off, so he hopes Risette is already asleep. Bob silently puts down his case and waddles to the living room.

"Ahem." Risette says with a glare as she flips on the living room light and looks at Bob.

"Eh..." Bob says silently as he looks at Risette looking like a lost puppy. 'This is just my luck, isn't it?' He thinks silently.

Risette crosses her flippers and looks angrily at him. "Do you _know_ what time it it?" She growls. "And _why the kipper_ have you _not_ answered your phone?!"

"Eh... Around two o'clock..." Bob says silently as he looks more at the ground than at Risette. "I don't have my phone anymore..." He mumbles then even more silently.

"And _what _has happened to your phone?" Risette asks with a very angry look.

Bob looks for a small moment at Risette silently. "I threw it out of my car window..." He mumbles barely audible as he turns his attention back on the floor.

Risette's eyes narrow to a very vicious, almost malicious look. "And _why _did _you_ do something as _stupid_ as that?" She growls. "Is it because _you are __stupid_? Or _do you_ just _not care_ about Edmond and me anymore?"

"No, no! I do care, I honestly do!" Bob says quickly with wide eyes. "You two mean the world to me, really!" He says and looks then at the ground again. Risette's words hurt him. Actually, they hurt him very much. "I'm sorry..."

"Of course you do." She says shortly and rolls her eyes. She then turns around and waddles upstairs to their bedroom with a parting snort.

"Risette!" Bob calls after her as he looks at her going to the bedroom. "I do, I really do... Risette..." He says silently and then goes to sit on the couch with his head in his flippers and sniffs a little. "I do care..." He mumbles.

Bob silently sits on the couch in the dark living room. He then gets out his tape-recorder.

"Hello, log." He says, sounding monotone and a bit sad. "Today was just horrible... For starters, even though I left my house early, I still was late for work because of a traffic jam. I was around the two hours late and I could see Gray wasn't pleased with me at all, even though she didn't seem to mind about the training being postponed by a couple of hours..." Bob sighs a little bit. "I did get my work done better though, I think. That packet Gray gave me really helped some. She actually surprised me a bit at training... I think she is, or has been having suicidal thoughts... I think she doesn't have much in her life besides work, which is kind of sad, and not good at all, but what can I do?" He is silent for a little while. "Risette was furious when I came home; it was already far past midnight and so I haven't been seeing my son or her almost at all..." He sniffs a little bit. "Also, she was not happy at all about how I have thrown my phone out of the car window and that I haven't been answering her calls at all. I don't blame her, but how could I have helped it that I needed to train and work to so late?" Bob sniffs again. "I don't think I really want to go to bed, I rather just stay on the couch... Maybe I'll do that... I bet that saves me of a rant or fight tonight..." He sighs and wipes his eyes a bit. "Anyway, goodnight, little tape-recorder..." Bob says and he lays down silently on the couch.

* * *

Grace waddles to her office once she is finished cleaning up in the training room. She glances at the clock with a small sigh. "0130...Marian's going to be mad enough that we trained so late..." She mumbles. "Guess I should go home..." She then turns off her computer, gets her scarf and case, and waddles out of the base to her car.

Grace drives her car quickly to her house through the practically empty roads. She makes it to her house in almost record time and parks with a sigh. She gets out of her car and waddles inside, just as she does all nights. She places her scarf on its hook and sits her case down and takes out her tape-recorder and brings it up to the bed with her. She has figures that she might as well skip dinner with how late it already is.

"Grace's Log." She says as she lies down. "Marian's forcing me to take a vacation soon. I don't want to." She sighs. "But, she also gave me a spy mission to look forward to. This ought to be 'interesting'. LG Bob came in late today, which made us have to train later. I found out that his last name is Garrison. I don't know why, but that last name sounds oddly really familiar..." She says thoughtfully. "But, he said he just wants addressed by his first name, not his last. Which is unusual, but not unheard of. We worked today on his balance. He started stalling ending today's training, after stalling to start it in the name of cookies. I think he and his wife are having problems. He just really seemed to not want to go home. But, I might be wrong of course, and it's not really my business anyway..." Grace is quiet for a moment. "Well, I suppose that's all for tonight. Over and out."

She sets her recorder aside, turns on her alarm and lays down on her pillows.

* * *

_Translations:_

_*Nom de famille : surname_

_*Ridicule : ridiculous _


End file.
